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THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD 
OF  TEACHING 

BY 

HARRIET  FINLAY-JOHNSON 


EDITED   BY 

ELLEN   M.  CYR 

AUTHOR    OK   THE    CHILDREN'S   READERS 


»«>  .  J  .    o  ; 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 


COPYRIGHT,  1912,  BY  GINN   AND   COMPANY 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


GINN  AND  COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

I  undertook  with  great  pleasure  the  task  of  editing  this 
book  for  the  inspiration  and  guidance  of  the  teachers 
in  America.  Every  page  is  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  joy 
and  hfe,  —  natural,  spontaneous  life,  —  recognizing  the 
rights  of  a  child  to  his  own  point  of  view  with  his  own 
limitations. 

Education  is  life,  not  just  the  preparation  for  life.  Some 
one  has  said  that  education  is  "being  at  home  in  God's 
world,"  and  another  educator  gives  the  following  beatitude  : 
"  Blessed  are  they  who  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  the 
knowledge  of  how  to  direct  instead  of  suppress  the  spon- 
taneous activities  of  childhood,  seeking  to  transmute  what 
is  evil  into  good,  for  they  shall  make  happy  and  competent 
and  well-behaved  children." 

The  best  teachers  are  those  who  lead  their  pupils  into 
activities  which,  based  upon  the  fundamental  instincts  of 
child  nature,  are  to  test  and  examine  everything  and  to 
attempt  all  feats. 

Miss  Finlay- Johnson  recognizes  her  pupils  as  little  men 
and  women  who  have  a  right  to  appropriate  just  that  part 
of  this  world  which  belongs  to  childhood,  and  in  her 
school  the  children  live  in  a  world  of  their  own  and  look 
upon  life  through  their  own  childish  vision.  They  enact 
again  the   events   of  history,   literature,   and   geography, 

260895 


vi        THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

and  fill  even  the  arithmetic  lessons  with  life  and  action. 
In  the  study  of  history  the  characters  are  released  from 
their  imprisonment  between  the  covers  of  the  books  ;  they 
don  their  regalia  and,  stepping  out  of  the  prosy  pages, 
live  their  lives  again  and  perform  once  more  their  deeds 
of  courage  and  prowess.  This  dramatic  work  brings  the 
children  into  closer  relationship,  awakening  sympathy  be- 
tween the  pupils  and  teacher,  and  fosters  class  spirit.  It 
also  gives  the  forward  children  opportunities  for  leadership, 
and  offers  a  natural  outlet  for  spontaneity  and  enthusiasm. 
Ingenuity,  individuality,  and  imagination  are  developed 
when  the  children  make  their  own  stage  properties,  as 
they  were  led  to  do  by  Miss  Finlay-Johnson. 

A  child  enters  school  during  the  years  of  the  play  period. 
"  Shades  of  the  prison  house  begin  to  close  upon  the  grow- 
ing boy,"  and  it  seems  hardly  fair  to  confine  him  in  a 
schoolroom  during  this  time.  Activities  at  this  age  mean 
much  more  than  objects  to  the  child,  and,  in  justice  to  his 
development,  every  means  to  educate  him  by  play  should 
be  employed.  If  he  finds  himself  repressed  on  every  side, 
he  becomes  discouraged  and  loses  interest  in  his  lessons  ; 
and  the  depression  which  is  likely  to  follow  retards  his 
mental  growth.  His  interest  is  most  quickly  aroused  in 
results  brought  about  by  his  own  activities.  Wise  is  the 
teacher  who  fosters  the  enthusiasm  and  elasticity  of  these 
early  years,  and  helps  the  child  to  realize  the  forces  that 
exist  within  him. 

This  dramatic  work  should  be  kept  simple.  Miss  Finlay- 
Johnson  realizes  this  and  also  the  danger  of  working  for 


PREFACE  Vll 

theatrical  effects.  She  avoids  this  danger  by  engaging  the 
whole  class  in  most  of  the  plays,  and  by  letting  the  children 
suggest  their  own  methods  of  acting.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  the  way  in  which  Miss  Finlay-Johnson  introduces 
acting  into  the  various  branches  of  study.  The  dolls  in 
the  geography  lessons  impersonate  the  inhabitants  of  the 
various  countries,  and  the  children  interest  themselves  in 
the  clothing  adapted  to  the  various  countries  and  climates. 
A  prominent  educator  says,  "there  is  more  philosophy 
and  poetry  in  a  single  doll  than  in  a  thousand  books." 

I  hope  many  of  our  American  teachers  will  learn  les- 
sons from  the  experiences  of  Miss  Finlay-Johnson  in  her 
work  in  "the  little  school  on  the  Sussex  Downs,  where 
children  and  teachers  lived  for  a  space  in  the  world  of 
romance  and  happiness."  She  preaches  "the  gospel  of 
happiness  in  childhood  for  those  who  will  be  the  world's 
workers  and  fighters  to-morrow,"  and  it  is  her  conviction 
that  "  fleeting  childhood's  days  should  be  filled  with  joy." 

Acknowledgment  is  made  for  permission  to  use  illustra- 
tions from  the  dramatic  work  in  the  schools  of  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  and  Holyoke,  Massachusetts. 

ELLEN   M.  CYR 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTl-K  PAGE 

I.    IXTRUDUCTIOX .  3 

/   II.  The  Teaching  of  History  by  Plays 18 

III.  The  Adapted  Play 44 

IV.  The  Original  Play 56 

V.  The  Shakespearean  Play 'j'] 

VI.  A  (iiRLs'  Play 109 

VII.   Literature 118 

^y  VIII.  Geography 133 

IX.  Arithmetic  and  Composition      .......  169 

X.  Nature  Study  newly  approached 178 

XI.  Manual  Work 187 

XII.  After  School  A(iE 191 

INDEX 197 


FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

THE  ''tig"  shed   in  COURSE  OF  CONSTRUCTION    .       .    Frontispiece 

''iVANHOE"— THE   ARREST    OF    MALVOISIN 5 

REDCROSS    KNIGHTS    IN    ARMOR    OF    TEA    PAPER    ....        I  I 

THE    CORONATION    OF    WILLIAM    AND    MARY        .       .       .       .       •        23 

THE    KNIGHTING    OF    RALEIGH 29 

THE  COLLAPSE  OF   MRS.    MICAWBER   WHEN   SHE   SEES   DAVID 

COPPERFIELD    AFTER    HER    RETURN 45 

Photograph  taken  at  the  Highland  School,  Holyoke,  Mas- 
sachusetts 

COMBAT    BETWEEN    RODERICK    DHU    AND    FITZ -JAMES      .        .        49 
Photograph  taken  at  the  Highland  School,  Holyoke,  Mas- 
sachusetts 

A    PART    OF    THE    ''  CHRISTMAS    CAROL  "    FESTIVAL      .       •       •       53 

LITTLE    RED    RIDING -HOOD 59 

Photograph  taken  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut 

THE    SUN    AND   THE    WIND    (tHE    WIND    SHOW^S    HIS    POWER)       65 
Photograph  taken  at  New  Hayen,  Connecticut 

THE    SUN    AND    THE    WIND    (tHE    SUN    SHOWS    HIS    POWER)       69 
Photograph  taken  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut 

THE    FIRST    COUNCIL   OF    HENRY   V 79 

SCHOOL    GARDEN  — THE    FLOWER    GARDENS 89 

xi 


Xll         THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

PAGE 
FAIRIES    IN    ''a    midsummer    NIGHT's    DREAM "    ....  97 

ELLEN    AND    MALCOLM    GRAEME Til 

Photograph  taken  at  the  Highland  School,  Holyoke,  Mas- 
sachusetts 

MR.    SCROOGE    AND    THE    BENEVOLENT    GENTLEMEN        .       .        12  1 
Photograph  taken  at  the  Highland  School,  Holyoke,  Mas- 
sachusetts 

THE    doll's    party 1 27 

Photograph  taken  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut 

geography    GAMES "  COAL    AND    IRON    TOWNS  "         .        .        141 

NORTH   AMERICAN   INDIANS   AT   MEALTIME.     IN   THE    P.ACK- 

(IROUND    ENGLISH    SETTLER    PLOWING 1 49 

NORTH    AMERICAN    INDIANS    KILLING    ANIMALS  .        .       .        .  1 55 

A    NATURE-STUDY    GAME— "  (,)UESTIONIN(i    THE    FLOWERS  "  179 

A    FAIRY    PLAY  — NATURE    STUDY    IDEALIZED 183 

mothers'    dramatic    FOLK    SONGS 1 93 


THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD 
OF  TEACHING 


THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD 
OF  TEACHING 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

IN  my  endeavor  to  write  a  practical  account  of  the 
way  I  taught  my  school  children  by  the  dramatic 
method,  I  think  it  will  be  useful  to  preface  the  more 
practical  chapters  with  a  few  introductory  words.  I  feel 
sure  that  all  educationists  worthy  of  the  name  will  agree 
that  at  the  present  day,  more  than  ever  before,  only  the 
very  best  will  be  good  enough  for  the  education  of  our 
children.  Yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  also  that,  in  our  con- 
scientious search  for  that  best,  we  (even  the  most  thought- 
ful of  us)  may  lose  sight  of  the  child  in  our  hunt  for  the 
VIC t J  10 d.  It  was  my  endeavor  to  treat  with  children  rather 
than  with  methods  and  theories  which  led  me  to  throw 
more  and  more  of  the  initial  effort  on  to  the  children 
themselves.  The  school  in  which  my  experiments  were 
carried  out  was  an  English  village  school  of  about  eighty- 
five  older  pupils  and  forty-five  primary  children  —  the  latter 
with  my  sister  in  charge.  There,  twelve  years  ago,  I  found 
myself  in  the  position  of  head  teacher ;  and  it  was  then 


4:.»?!iE  DJI'AMATIC-.METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

that  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  a  great  need 
of  a  radical  change.  So  litde  was  there  of  initiative  or 
originality  on  the  part  of  the  children  themselves,  that  I 
felt  sure  nothing  short  of  a  surgical  operation  —  a  com- 
plete cutting  away  of  old  habits  and  the  formation  of  a 
new  school  tradition  — would  meet  the  case.  The  first  aid 
which  I  invoked  was  "  nature  study,"  mainly  from  its 
aesthetic  standpoint  ;  and  from  the  very  first  I  realized  that, 
to  be  of  any  value,  it  must  be  nature  really  studied  by  the 
child  himself.  It  must  not  be  nature  filtered  through  pic- 
torial illustration,  textbook,  dried  specimen,  and  scientific 
terms,  finally  dribbled  into  passive  children's  minds  minus 
the  joy  of  assimilation  ;  but  it  must  be  the  real  study  of 
living  and  w^orking  nature,  absorbed  in  the  open  air  under 
conditions  which  allow  for  free  movement  under  natural 
discipline.  And  since  nature  is  the  storehouse  from  which 
poet  and  artist  draw  their  inspiration,  it  naturall)'  follows 
that  we  found  it  but  a  short  step  from  the  study  of  the 
open  book  of  nature  into  the  Elysian  fields  of  literature 
and  the  arts.  Nature  study  then  became  the  basis  of  every 
possible  lesson  ;  and  the  school  nature  gardens  and  na- 
ture rambles  supplied  subject  matter  for  lessons  in  singing, 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  drawing,  painting,  recitation, 
composition,  grammar,  and  much  of  the  geography. 

It  was  because  the  lessons  in  history  could  not  be  so 
well  connected  with  nature  study,  and  therefore  lacked 
the  living  interest  w^hich  the  other  subjects  now  acquired 
from  nature,  that  the  historical  play  in  my  school  came  to 
be  evolved.    A  child  learns,  and  retains  what  he  is  learning, 


INTRODUCTION  7 

better  b\'  actually  sccijig  and  doing  things,  which  is  a 
guiding  principle  of  kindergartners.  There  is  not  a  very 
marked  difference  between  the  ages  of  the  children  who 
enjoy  learning  by  kindergarten  games  and  of  the  so-called 
"  older  pupils."  Why  not  continue  the  principle  of  the 
kindergarten  game  in  the  school  for  older  pupils  ?  I  did 
so,  but  with  this  difference  :  instead  of  letting  the  teacher 
originate  or  conduct  the  play,  I  demanded  that,  just  as 
the  individual  himself  must  study  nature  and  not  have  it 
studied  for  him,  the  play  must  be  the  child's  own.  How- 
ever crude  the  action  or  dialogue  from  the  adult's  point 
of  view,  it  would  fitly  express  the  stage  of  development 
arrived  at  by  the  child's  mind,  and  would  therefore  be 
valuable  to  him  as  a  vehicle  of  expression  and  assimila- 
tion (which  is,  after  all,  what  we  need),  rather  than  a  fin- 
ished product  pleasing  to  the  more  cultixated  mind  of  an 
adult,  and  perhaps  uninteresting  to  a  child. 

So  far  as  originality  is  concerned,  1  believe  all  children 
are  original.  But  the  elementary-school  tradition  (as  we 
have  been  forced  to  know  it  hitherto)  has  followed  faith- 
fully the  lead  of  the  first  schoolmasters  —  who  catered  to 
pupils  of  mature  years.  This  tradition  tacitly  presupposes 
the  development  of  qualities  and  faculties  of  mind  which 
are  not  developed  in  the  child  of  tender  years  ;  thus  na- 
ture's plan  is  violated.  To  study  a  child  who  is  attending 
a  school  conducted  under  such  conditions  will  not  result 
in  our  finding  out  much  about  the  natural,  normal  child. 
A  child  in  such  a  case  will  have  learned  to  suppress 
himself  —  his   originality  —  and    not  to  express   himself. 


8         THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Language  and  facial  expression  are  vehicles  of  thought  (at 
least,  they  are  in  childhood).  But  in  schools  where  the 
lessons  are  conducted  on  the  lecture  and  question-and- 
answer  principle,  thought  and  language  are  limited  and 
facial  expression  may  be  nil.  The  question,  of  necessity, 
determines  the  trend  of  the  answer,  and,  to  a  certain 
extent,  suggests  the  terms  of  the  answer. 

In  order  that  I  might  see  how  far  the  beauties  of  na- 
ture, literature,  and  the  arts  had  been  comprehended  and 
appreciated  by  my  pupils,  I  realized  that  I  must  get  them 
to  converse  freely  with  me  (or  at  all  events  where  I  could 
hear  their  real  conversations),  and  not  merely  to  listen  to 
me  or  answer  my  questions.  Here  was  the  main  difficulty 
(and  here  will  lie  the  difficulty  for  those  teachers  who 
desire  to  base  their  children's  school  lives  on  rational  and 
natural  lines)  —  to  obtain  free,  natural,  and  spontaneous 
conversation,  real  self-expression  from  pupils  who  have 
learned  as  a  tradition  that  "Talking  in  school  is  against 
the  rules  !  "  Here,  again,  nature  study  served  me  ;  chil- 
dren once  trained  to  observe  rightly  soon  have  no  difficulty 
in  telling  about  what  they  have  seen,  and  lose  all  shyness 
in  discussing  the  whys  and  wherefores  of  natural  phenom- 
ena with  others  who  have  observed  the  same  things.  The 
four  steps  to  original  conversations  and  to  an  improved 
vocabulary  were  : 

1.  I  first  trained  the  children  to  sec  the  world  of 
nature  around  them. 

2.  I  encouraged  them  to  tell  me  what  they  saw. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

3.  I  showed  them  where  to  find  their  earhest  im- 
pressions confirmed  and  crystalhzed,  which  was  their 
introduction  to  good  hterature,  with  its  (to  them)  new 
vocabular)'. 

4.  I  led  them  to  look  for  "reasons  why,"  by  means 
of  free  discussions,  and  to  imagine  for  themselves  the 
gleam,  "  the  light  that  never  was,  on  sea  or  land." 

And  all  this  time  my  pupils  were  developing  rapidly  — 
acquiring  natural  manners  with  a  lack  of  self-conscious- 
ness ;  enlarging  their  vocabulary  with  the  knowledge  of 
how  to  use  it ;  attacking  difficulties  with  zest,  and  with  an 
absence  of  nervousness  or  self-distrust ;  taking  a  cheerful, 
bright  outlook  on  life  with  no  tendency  to  worry.  Surely 
such  habits  are  a  more  valuable  foundation  for  a  life's 
career  than  the  mere  ability  to  spell  a  large  number  of 
extraordinary  words,  to  work  a  certain  number  of  sums  on 
set  rules,  or  to  be  able  to  read  whole  pages  of  printed 
matter  without  being  able  to  comprehend  a  single  idea,  or 
to  originate  any  new  train  of  thought. 

Having  thus  brought  my  school  to  a  condition  in  which 
the  pupils  had  really  lost  and  forgotten  tJic  relationships 
of  tcacJicr  and  pnpil,  by  substituting  those  of  fellow 
workers,  friends,  and  playmates,  I  had  now  to  set  to  work 
to  use  to  full  advantage  this  condition  of  affairs.  It  was 
now  quite  possible  to  play  any  game  in  school  without  fear 
of  the  pupils  getting  out  of  hand,  confused,  or  too  bois- 
terous. There  could  be  plenty  of  liberty  without  license, 
because  the   teacher,   being   a   companion   to   and  fellow 


lO      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

worker  with  the  pupils,  had  a  strong  moral  hold  on  them 
and  shared  in  the  citizen's  right  of  holding  an  opinion, 
being  heard,  therefore,  not  as  "absolute  monarch,"  but 
on  the  same  grounds  as  the  children  themselves.  Hence 
every  one  exerted  his  or  her  individual  powers  to  make 
the  plays  a  success  (which  in  the  children's  opinion  meant 
their  being  real  and  lifelike),  and  it  was  the  equal  right  of 
teacher  or  child  to  say,  "  So-and-so  is  n't  playing  the  game," 
or  in  some  other  way  to  criticize  the  actions  of  others.  It 
was,  moreover,  a  point  of  honor  that  pupils  so  criticized 
should  take  the  matter  in  good  part  and  endeavor  to  con- 
form to  the  rules  of  the  game. 

Our  first  plays  were  Jiistorical  and  were  based  on  the 
historical  novel,  because 

1.  The  children  were  already  interested  in  read- 
ing them,  and  had  formed  fairly  dramatic  pictures  of 
them  in  their  own  minds, 

2.  I  desired  that,  at  first,  the  children  should  act 
real  characters  rather  than  mythical  or  fairy  crea- 
tions. This  did  away  with  acting  for  display  in  the 
usual  school-entertainment  style,  which  would  have 
detracted  considerably  from  the  educational  value,  in 
that  it  would  have  fostered  self-consciousness  or 
nervousness. 

3.  The  pupils  had  already,  with  my  cooperation, 
formed  a  school  library  for  use  during  school  hours, 
and  this  contained  a  sufficient  number  and  variety 
of  books  out  of  which  to   extract  material  for  the 


INTRODUCTION  13 

dialogues  and  arrangements  of  their  plays.  In  these 
books  they  had  already  found  many  scenes  dealing 
with  real  historical  personages,  which  were  easily 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  school  games  and  plays. 

The  point  which  I  should  like  particularly  to  emphasize 
is  that  the  earliest  plays  should  deal  with  real  persons. 
Children  are  generally  sincere  and  are  most  interested  in 
a  story  that  is  true. 

A  great  advantage  of  this  new  method  of  learning 
lessons  by  means  of  playing  and  acting  them,  lay  in  the 
fact  that  it  was  not  absolutely  necessary  to  have  the  lessons 
in  one  particular  room  ;  they  could  as  easily,  or  more  easily, 
be  played  in  the  open  air.  Frequently  we  acted  our  history 
plays  on  the  downs,  in  overgrown  chalk  pits,  or  just  in 
our  own  school  playground. 

The  advantage  of  this  adaptability  of  situation  lies  in 
the  fact  that  more  movement  and  open-air  conditions  make 
for  the  improved  health  of  teachers  and  pupils  alike.  In 
the  history  of  education  we  appear  to  have  arrived  at  a 
time  when  we  have  to  consider  the  advisability  —  or  the 
reverse  —  of  giving  our  pupils  what  is  termed  a  practical 
education.  Too  often,  it  seems,  the  practical  degenerates 
into  the  merely  technical  or  utilitarian,  and  may  usurp 
time  which  should  be  given  to  the  humanities.  Every  one 
agrees  that  childhood  should  be  —  and  nearly  always  is  — 
the  happiest  time  of  life  ;  when  that  is  once  over,  there  is 
"  something  lost  and  gone  "  that  no  subsequent  happiness 
quite  atones  for.    If  this  be  true,  then  am  I  wrong  when  I 


14      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

claim  that  childhood  should  be  a  time  for  merely  absorb- 
ing big  stores  of  sunshine  for  possible  future  dark  times  ? 
And  what  do  I  mean  by  sunshine  but  just  the  things  for 
which  nature  implanted  (in  the  best  and  highest  part  of  us) 
an  innate  desire  ?  The  joy  of  knowing  the  beauties  of  the 
living  world  around  us  and  of  probing  its  mysteries;  the 
delights  of  finding  sympathetic  thoughts  in  the  best  of 
English  literature  (a  literature  unrivaled  in  the  world  !)  ; 
the  gradual  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  in  art ;  the  desire 
which  all  these  bring  to  burning  youth  to  be  up  and 
"  doing  likewise  "  ;  the  awakening  of  the  young  enthusi- 
asm, even  of  merely  evanescent  youthful  dreams,  instead 
of  the  soul-deadening  monotony  and  limitation  of  tech- 
nical instruction  —  these  are  the  things  that  count.  Let 
the  boy  who  delights  in  experiment  and  investigation 
follow  his  bent,  and,  when  he  himself  is  ready  and  eager 
for  it,  then  supply  the  necessary  technical  instruction.  Do 
not  damp  and  kill  the  fires  of  young  enthusiasm  ;  they 
make  the  world  go  round.  Our  dreamers  have  been  our 
real  workers  after  all  ;  they  "  dreamed  dreams  and  saw 
visions  "  and  probed  things  new,  while  they  of  the  earth, 
earthy,  were  content  to  toil  mechanically,  as  beasts  having 
no  understanding.  You  cannot  turn  out  scientist  or  artist 
without  a  training  in  the  humanities.  And  we  are  not  re- 
quired to  teach  the  humanities,  but  to  allow  our  boys  and 
girls  in  their  natural  enthusiasm  to  absorb  them  from  the  en- 
vironment which  we  can,  at  least,  help  to  place  around  them. 
Curiously  enough  the  most  striking  result  of  teaching 
by  means  of  the  "play  "  in  school  is  that  children  become 


INTRODUCTION  1 5 

really  practical  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  although  we 
set  out  to  ignore  the  practical  and  pay  attention  to  the 
humanities. 

And  one  other  plea  for  the  dramatic  method  of  teach- 
ing in  school  :  it  makes  for  greater  happiness  of  both 
pupils  and  teachers.  We  all  do  our  best  when  we  are 
happy.  Most  of  us  are  happier  when  conscious  of  giving 
pleasure  to  others.  A  great  many  persons  are  of  the  opin- 
ion that,  "as  the  teacher,  so  the  class."  I  believe,  at  all 
events,  that  the  temper  of  the  teacher  must  necessarily 
react  on  the  class  ;  and  I  know  that  thunderclouds  of 
impatience  or  mists  of  disappointment  are  quickly  dis- 
pelled by  the  sight  of  happy,  healthy  children  entering 
with  zest  into  their  interesting  dramatic  plays  ;  and  that 
hardened  and  deadened  indeed  must  be  the  teacher  who 
can  resist  the  happiness  radiated  by  children  anxious  to 
play  well,  and  looking  for  the  encouragement  shown  by 
the  approbation  of  fellow  pupils  and  teacher. 

It  may  be  argued  that  all  these  results  might  possibly 
be  obtained  in  the  usual  school  routine,  by  making  the 
ordinary  lessons  more  interesting  by  means  of  pictorial 
illustrations  or  by  the  teacher's  telling  the  children  stories 
inculcating  the  lessons  in  hand.  And  I  reply  that  it  is 
more  in  keeping  with  child  nature  not  to  sit  constandy 
"  as  a  passive  bucket  to  be  pumped  into."  I  know  that, 
as  a  child,  while  I  promptly  forgot  all  my  "  school  "  his- 
tory (taught,  no  doubt,  in  what  ought  to  have  been  the 
most  interesting  fashion,  with  anecdote  and  illustration), 
I  have  still  a  clear  and  lively  recollection  of  the  history 


l6      THE   DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

(and  other  things)  which  I  acted  with  my  chums  after 
school  hours.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  my  pupils  remember 
an  enormous  amount  of  detailed  history  and  fact,  not  to 
mention  such  things  as  genealogical  tables  (bane  of  all 
children),  dates,  and  statistics,  which  they  have  absorbed 
unconsciously  during  their  plays  and  in  the  preparation 
of  them. 

Probably  most  people  have  recollections  of  the  time  in 
their  life  when  action  seemed  the  keynote  of  their  char- 
acter. Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  who  understood  children 
better  than  most  people,  says  :  "  We  grown-up  people 
can  tell  ourselves  a  story,  all  the  while  sitting  quietly  by 
the  fire.  This  is  exactly  what  a  child  cannot  do,  or  does 
not  do  —  at  least,  when  he  can  do  anything  else.  He 
works  all  with  lay  figures  and  stage  properties.  When  his 
story  comes  to  the  fighting  he  must  rise,  get  something 
by  way  of  a  sword,  and  have  a  set-to  with  a  piece  of 
furniture  until  he  is  out  of  breath." 

Young  pupils  entering  our  school  from  another  very 
soon  fell  into  the  ways  and  discipline  of  ours  ;  which,  I 
think,  showed  that  our  method  worked  on  natural  lines, 
although  it  was  a  contrast  to  that  generally  prevailing. 

I  remember  being  much  struck  by  hearing  the  inspector 
of  our  district  say  at  an  educational  meeting  that  very  few 
women  teachers  possessed  a  sense  of  humor  —  or  at  least 
he  never  found  them  exercising  it.  I  have  found  it  a 
great  safety  valve.  How  often  a  sense  of  humor  at  the 
right  moment  may  prevent  the  tragedy  of  life  from  strik- 
ing too  deep  !    By  humor  I  do  not  mean  the  silly  frivolity 


INTRODUCTION  ly 

which  characterizes  so  many  children,  —  the  gigghng  at 
mere  fooHshness,  which  would,  of  course,  upset  any  school, 
—  but  just  the  ability  to  see  the  humorous  side  when  it 
ought  to  be  seen.  We  frequently  had  amusing  little  unre- 
hearsed effects  in  our  plays  which  might  have  resulted  in 
quarrels  or  teasing,  and  so  upset  "  plays  "  in  school.  Then 
it  was  that  the  ability  to  "  see  the  joke  "  saved  the  situation. 
I  think  a  sense  of  humor  —  duly  harnessed  —  is  a  valuable 
asset  even  for  a  business  man  (although  I  did  not  profess 
to  be  training  business  men  —  Heaven  forbid!).  On  one 
occasion  we  were  acting  the  insurrection  of  Jack  Cade,  and 
Cade  was  being  slain  in  I  den's  garden.  He  should  have 
said  :  ''  Oh,  I  am  slain  !  Famine  and  no  other  hath  slain 
me."  What  he  did  say  was  :  "  Oh,  I  am  slain  !  Salmon 
and  no  other  hath  slain  me."  A  hearty  laugh  interrupted 
his  beautiful  death  peroration.  When  we  explained  his  slip 
no  one  laughed  more  heartily  than  he.  But  it  was  remark- 
able that  once  the  laugh  was  legitimately  and  naturally  out, 
every  one  fell  to  once  more  with  the  play. 


CHAPTER   II 
THE   TEACHING   OF    H1ST(3RY    BY   PLAYS 

OUR  first  attempt  at  drama  as  a  legitimate  school 
lesson  was  concerned  with  history.  We  had  been 
reading  Sir  Walter  Scott's  "  Ivanhoe  "  as  an  adjunct  to 
the  study  of  the  reign  of  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  and  his 
times.  I  think  we  were  all  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
atmosphere  of  romance  and  dcrriiii^-do,  and  the  boys  in 
particular  seemed  ready  for  suiting  the  action  to  the  word. 
The  fire  was  laid  ;  it  needed  but  the  match  to  start  it ! 
And  here  it  should  be  noticed  that  the  foundation  and 
basis  of  our  play  was  literature  —  not  from  the  ordinarily 
accepted  school  "reader"  containing  a  little  bit  about 
cotton,  a  little  bit  about  coal,  a  scrappy  extract  from  a 
"  good  "  writer,  with  a  poem  about  an  impossible  little 
girl  who  sewed  "as  long  as  her  eyes  could  see"  (so  bad 
for  her  eyes,  too!);  the  whole  interlarded  with  moral 
maxims,  conveying  practically  nothing  to  a  child,  and 
seasoned  with  a  pinch  of  "  tables  "  and  another  of  "  diffi- 
cult "  words  in  columns  !  No.  In  our  school  the  whole 
book  as  it  left  the  mind  of  its  writer  is  placed  on  the  open 
library  shelf  to  be  read  by  every  interested  pupil. 

The  practical-minded  person  will  probably  now  be  in- 
terested to  have  a  description  of  our  first  play.    It  was  a 

i8 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY  BY  PLAYS        19 

rainy  day.  Long  play  out  of  doors  had  been  impossible  ; 
so  I  started  with  a  good  supply  of  bottled  energy  and  ''in- 
stinct for  play"  ready  to  command.  A  little  talk  with  the 
children  of  the  upper  classes  and  a  discussion  on  the  char- 
acters in  "Ivanhoe"  led  to  such  remarks  from  the  boys  as, 
"  If  /  had  been  So-and-so,  I  should  have  done  so-and-so  "; 
and  as  play  out  of  doors  was  out  of  the  question,  some 
one  soon  suggested,  "Couldn't  we  play  at  'Ivanhoe' 
indoors  ?  "  From  that  time  I  had  no  further  doubts  as  to 
whether  the  play  in  school  could  be  successfully  man- 
aged. But  to  outsiders  there  was  nothing  brilliant  in  our 
first  attempt. 

To  us  who  were  "in  it,"  the  schoolroom  was  really  the 
lists  at  Ashby  de  la  Zouch,  or  any  other  place  our  imagi- 
nation desired,  but  an  outsider  could  see  only  the  restricted 
space  in  front  of  an  ordinary  class.  No  time  was  wasted 
at  first  in  arranging  scenes  or  casting  parts.  It  took  but  a 
few  seconds  for  the  boys  to  settle  on  a  rosy,  rotund  boy 
for  a  jovial  Friar  Tuck,  who  at  once  deposited  himself 
under  a  high,  spindle-legged  desk  which  he  dubbed  his 
hermit's  cell.  "  I  'm  the  Black  Knight,"  said  another, 
dragging  his  black  jersey  over  his  head  for  a  suit  of  chain 
mail.  "  Let  me  be  your  horse,"  volunteered  another,  prof- 
fering the  necessary  "  back."  Soon  the  play  was  in  full 
swing,  although  it  might  not  have  seemed  encouraging  to 
the  enthusiast  (burning  to  "  improve  "  the  children)  to 
hear  Friar  Tuck,  forgetting  the  text  of  the  book,  retort 
"Shan't,"  when  the  Black  Knight  thundered  with  his 
heavy  "  pointer  "  on  the  spindle-legged  desk,  demanding 


20      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

admittance  or  "the  road."  The  same  Friar  Tuck,  when 
told  by  his  onlookers  that  he  ought  to  sing  loudly,  impro- 
vised quite  an  appropriate  refrain  to  the  words  "  Tol-de- 
rol-lol."  No  one  laughed,  and  none  were  at  all  irreverent, 
when  he  changed  the  tune  to,  "\Miile  shepherds  watched 
their  flocks  by  night,"  as  the  nearest  substitute  he  could 
find  for  a  monkish  Latin  chant.  There  was  plenty  of 
interest,  plenty  of  life,  no  ill-temper,  and  a  sufficiency  of 
self-expression  both  verbal  and  facial. 

It  has  always  been  an  axiom  in  matters  of  school  method 
that  one  of  the  first  essentials  in  teaching  any  subject  should 
^     be,  "First  arouse  the  desire  to  knowy    When  our  pupils 
began  to  dramatize  their  lessons,  they  at  once  developed  a 
keen  desire  to  know  many  things  which  hitherto  had  been 
matters  of  pure  indifference  to  them.    For  instance,  after 
their  initial  performance  of  scenes  from  "  Ivanhoc,"  they 
Y    soon  began  to  study  the  book  closely  to  supply  deficiencies 
y    in  dialogue;  and  when  dialogue  was  rendered  according  to 
r   the  book,  it  had  to  be  memorized  (voluntarily),  and  this 
led  to  searching  questions  after  meanings  and  allusions, 
some  of  which  the  older  pupils  soon  learned  to  find  in 
the  dictionaiT.    Here,  then,  was  "  English  "  studied  vol- 
untarily by  young  country  children,  to  the  enrichment  of 
their  vocabulary  and  the  satisfactory  rendering  of  plays  for 
their  own  recreation.    An  enormous  amount  of  general 
knowledge  can  be  acquired  in  the  hunt  for  meanings  and 
derivations  of  words.    For  example,  the  sentences:  "  Doth 
the  Grand  Master  allow  me  this  combat.?"    "  I  may  not 
deny  what  thou  hast  challenged,  if  the  maid  accepts  thee 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY  15  V  PLAYS        21 

as  her  champion,"  led  to  questions  from  the  young  actor 
impersonating  the  Grand  Master  as  to  what  he  was  Grand 
Master  of,  and  a  consequent  description  of  the  order  of 
Knights  Templars,  Crusaders,  and  the  Holy  Wars.  This 
further  led  up  to  an  allusion  to  the  fact  that  a  preceptory 
of  the  Knights  Templars  once  existed  not  far  from  the 
school,  and  so  to  some  local  Church  history.  By  the  time 
the  subject  was  exhausted  every  one  had  a  good  knowl- 
edge of  it  acquired  pleasantly  and  permanently.  They  had 
made  acquaintance  with  such  terms  as  "  palmers,"  "min- 
strels," "tournament,"  "chivalry,"  and  "challenge";  and 
they  had  learned  something  about  the  way  in  which  trade 
had  extended  and  improved  through  the  spirit  of  adventure 
which  prompted  men  to  travel  and  extend  their  horizon 
and  experience. 

Each  subsequent  performance  of  scenes  from  "  Ivanhoe  " 
showed  a  marvelous  improvement  in  knowledge  and  in- 
telligence of  the  right  kind.  The  pupils  themselves,  even 
while  inventing  probable  conversations  not  recorded  ver- 
batim in  the  book,  either  consciously  or  unconsciously 
kept  up  the  style  and  "  period  "  in  their  own  diction.  They 
showed  the  greatest  resourcefulness  in  getting  over  diffi- 
culties such  as  must  occur  when  boys  and  girls  have  to 
leave  school  permanently  or  be  absent  temporarily.  Always 
one  or  another  would  come  forward  ready  and  anxious  to 
do  the  necessary  work.  The  pupils  themselves  suggested 
costume  and  stage  properties,  which  the  girls  contrived  out 
of  silver-paper  tea  wrappings  supplied  from  their  homes. 
What  mattered  it  if  the  mvstic  words  "  Ceylon  Tea,  $0.30 


22      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

per  pound  "  appeared  writ  large  in  sable  on  the  hero's 
shield  ?  Jl^e  saw  only  the  shield  of  a  Red  Cross  Knight. 
Such  delightful  surprises^  too,  would  the  boys  spring  on 
us  !  One  morning  it  was  a  set  of  horse  brasses  bestowed 
on  the  joyful  recipient  by  a  teamster.  Picture  how  de- 
lighted the  crowd  was  in  the  playground  that  morning 
when  the  proud  owner  produced  them  and  fitted  them  on 
the  "war  horse";  how,  of  course,  Ivanhoe,  the  champion, 
must  have  that  horse ;  how  the  eager  crowd  trooped  in  to 
show  their  treasures  to  me ;  and  how  truly  good  and  happy 
they  were  when,  disregarding  the  regular  schedule,  we 
rehearsed,  and  I  raised  no  objection  to  the  war  horse's 
curvetting,  stamping,  and  jingling  its  brasses.  Why,  it 
was  a  rfci/  tournament ! 

Then,  of  course,  the  question  arose  as  to  what  would 
be  the  proper  song  for  Friar  Tuck  to  sing  if  he  might  not 
sing  "While  shepherds  watched,"  which  ended  in  a  pupil's 
discovering  a  song  which  /ir  thought  appropriate  and  which 
turned  out  to  be  "There  were  three  ravens  sat  on  a  tree  — 
Hey-adown-hey  derry  derry  down,"  which  was,  I  think, 
a  sufficient  advance  on  the  first  attempt  to  prove  encourag- 
ing to  the  most  pessimistic  of  pedagogues.  On  an  inquiry 
being  raised  for  a  tune  for  "Troll  the  brown  bowl  to  me, 
bully  boy,"  none  was  forthcoming,  so  Friar  Tuck  impro- 
vised quite  in  the  style  of  the  "  Three  Ravens."  But  eyes, 
ears,  and  minds  were  kept  alert,  and,  joy  of  joys,  one  day 
an  inspector  visited  the  school  who,  when  the  song  time 
arrived,  could  supply  the  tune.  He  sang  it  over  once  to 
the  most  attentive  audience  I  have  ever  known,  and  when 


THE  TEACHING  OE  HISTOR\     \\\    I'LAVS        25 

he  had  gone  away  every  child  knew  that  tune  and  could 
sing  lustily,  "  Ho,  jolly  Jenkin  —  I  spy  a  knave  drinking." 
I  contrasted  this  with  some  of  the  laborious  lessons  on 
school  songs  that  I  have  known  —  dead  bones  of  songs, 
having  no  responsive  chords  in  the  hearts  of  boys  and  girls !    /• 

I  feel  convinced  that  my  pupils,  while  playing,  had 
learned  far  more  of  the  English  language,  history,  and 
withal  romance,  than  I  could  ever  have  taught  them  by 
means  of  blackboard,  columns  of  classified  words,  and 
Latin  "  roots  "  more  suited  to  adult  students  possessed  of 
a  goodly  store  of  voluntary  attention  and  will  power  —  to 
whom,  by  the  way,  I  do  not  believe  it  would  be  very 
enthralling !  And  surely  there  is  no  such  virtue  in  black- 
board and  chalk  that  they  should  be  deemed  essential  in 
the  teaching  of  all  subjects  in  school.  How  much  more 
in  keeping  with  child  nature  is  it  to  conceal  the  "pow- 
der" in  the  "  jam,"  and  to  work  with  live  puppets  at  play 
so  that  the  end  is  reached  through  pleasant  means. 

Our  first  pla}-s  were  what  I  term  adapted  plays  worked  / 
up  from  historical  novels  ;  and  when  I  had  watched  and 
helped  through  the  first  trial  play,  I  began  to  see  how  it 
might  be  possible  to  throw  more  of  the  actual  lessons, 
including  their  preparation  and  arrangement,  on  to  the 
pupils  themselves.  I  had  long  felt  instinctively  that  the 
ordinary  "notes  of  lessons"  —  even  the  best  of  them  — 
were  open  to  serious  objection.  For  the  best  of  notes, 
prepared  by  the  teacher  with  laborious  care  overnight,  pre- 
suppose an  attitude  of  mind  which  may,  in  the  morning, 
be  missinsf  from  the  class  as  a  whole  or  from  individual 


26       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

children.  The  teacher  who  prepares  her  notes  and  says, 
"  Now  I  will  say  this  and  the  pupils  will  reply  so-and-so," 
finds  that  her  ''best  laid  schemes"  may  "gang  a-gley," 
and  that  the  unexpected  most  often  happens,  for  the 
pupils'  minds  may  not  work  according  to  the  prepared 
''notes,"  and  friction  is  the  result  instead  of  harmony. 
Besides,  more  than  half  the  benefit  of  the  lesson  lies, 
in  my  opinion,  in  the  act  of  preparing  it,  in  hunting  its 
materials  out  of  hidden  sources  and  bringing  them  into 
shape.  Most  people  know  that  the  best  way  to  learn  a 
thing  is  to  try  to  impart  it.  If  any  weakness  in  knowledge 
exists,  it  appears  directly  we  try  to  impart  our  facts  con- 
secutively. How  much  better,  for  instance,  it  is  to  hunt 
out  one's  own  botanical  specimens  and  study  them  in  their 
own  native  haunts  than  to  have  a  set  of  dried  specimens, 
carefully  collected  and  preserved  by  some  one  else,  put  into 
one's  hands,  together  with  a  full  explanation  and  descrip- 
tion of  their  peculiarities,  order,  class,  and  habitat ! 

If  the  pupils  know  that  they  have  to  prepare  certain 
scenes  in  order  that  they  may,  by  such  agency,  impart  cer- 
tain facts  to  their  fellow  students,  they  immediately  feel 
the  responsibility  and  derive  the  full  benefit  from  the  les- 
son because  they  "  find  it "  themselves,  little  by  little,  and 
are  receptive  in  the  highest  degree  because  they  intend  at 
once  making  use  of  what  they  have  found.  They  learn  to 
"  feel  their  feet  "  under  them,  —  to  stand  alone,  —  to  find 
and  use  their  ow^n  powers. 

Children  have  a  wonderful  faculty  for  teaching  other 
children  and  learning  from  them.  Uncontrolled,  this  faculty 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY  BY  PLAYS        2/ 

is  generally  used  for  getting  one  another  into  mischief, 
but  diverted  into  other  channels  it  may  have  a  great  influ- 
ence for  good.  Children  know  by  instinct  how  to  get  ideas 
into  their  companions'  minds  where  a  teacher  will  fail  for 
lack  of  the  sympathetic  touch.  Another  strong  argument 
in  favor  of  allowing  children  to  impart  knowledge  to  others 
is  that  the  pupils  in  any  one  class  will  almost  always  be  from 
the  same  neighborhood,  and  limited  to  the  same  vocabu- 
lary; hence  they  will  find  the  correct  terms  of  expression 
to  convey  the  necessary  intelligence  to  their  hearers.  I 
have  frequently  found  this  occurring  in  our  improvised 
school  plays,  and  have  been  delighted  to  hear  clever  para- 
phrases and  translations  into  everyday  language,  showing, 
as  they  did,  such  complete  grasp  of  the  author's  meaning. 
It  was  not  only  boys  who  could  adapt  plays.  Suitable  parts 
and  plays  were  found  for  and  by  the  girls.  In  "  Ivanhoe," 
of  course  there  was  a  Rebecca  and  a  Rowena  ;  and  noth- 
ing could  have  excelled  the  simplicity  and  quiet  dignity 
with  which  they  prepared  and  went  through  their  parts. 
Naturally  in  historical  plays  boys'  parts  predominated,  but 
the  girls  did  their  full  share  of  assisting  in  the  preparation 
for  them  and  in  making  notes  of  all  the  scenes  which  had 
to  be  compiled  or  invented.  This  brings  me  to  an  impor- 
tant point  in  the  dramatization  of  lessons.  The  clerical  side 
is  by  no  means  neglected ;  it  is,  in  fact,  extremely  arduous, 
but  the  children  are  unconscious  of  this,  since  the  work 
is  voluntary  and  determined  in  amount  by  themselves. 
Having  found  by  disappointing  experience  that  "  lovely  " 
speeches,    drawn   from,   perhaps,   two   or  three   different 


28       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

books,  were  forgotten  at  the  critical  moment  or  rendered 
badly,  the  pupils  made  a  point  of  writing  out  their  speeches 
in  full  and  /;/  their  oivn  time!  Their  reward  was  that  they 
convinced  their  audiences. 

One  can  easily  see  how  children  mav_unconsciously  ab- 
sorb the  art  of  spelling  by  encountering  new  words  during 
the  act  of  writing  out  notes  or  parts.  And  similarly  they 
fall  into  the  art  of  good  composition  and  style  in  just  the 
way  that  we  grown-ups  model  and  remodel  our  style  —  on 
the  plan  of  unconsciousl}-  imitating  that  of  good  writers 
wdth  a  dash  of  ourselves  thrown  in.  Here,  then,  are  two 
of  the  "  three  R  "  bogies  tackled  without  tears  —  reading 
and  ' ritiug :  reading^  for  information  and  immediate  profit 
(not  to  speak  of  longer  deferred  and  more  lasting  results, 
of  which  more  anon),  which  is  ' '  readmg^\\athjntelligen^ 
and  this  no  one  can  deny;  and  writing,  not  a  mere  "exer- 
cise "  for  the  sake  of  writing  and  correction,  with  visions 
of  the  waste-paper  basket  looming  large  in  the  background, 
but  writing:  for  a,purpose  and  for  preservation  for  present 
and  future  use. 

The  sonrees  from  which  the  pupils  drew  their  adapted 
plays  were  always  placed  within  their  reach.  In  one  corner 
of  the  schoolroom  the  boys  theniselves  have  erected  four 
long  shelves,  made  out  of  disused  desks.  On  these  shelves 
we  formed  a  collection  of  books,  including  as  many  good 
historical  novels  as  we  could,  and  endeavoring  to  obtain  at 
least  one  good  novel  on  each  reign  or  period  of  English 
history.  Such  books  as  Lytton's  '"  Harold  "  and  "The  Last 
of  the   Barons,"    Kingsley's   "Heroes"   and   " Hereward 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY  BY  PLAYS       31 

the  Wake,"  Scott's  "Kenilworth,"  "The  Talisman,"  and 
"The  Abbot,"  Blackmore's  "Lorna  Doone  ";  several  good 
tales  of  sea  adventures  of  the  times  of  Raleigh,  Drake,  and 
Frobisher ;  as  many  good  histories  as  we  could  collect, 
really  good  manuals,  —  a  "Green"  and  a  "Fletcher,"- — 
all  found  a  place  on  our  shelves.  Particularly  useful  books 
were  collections  of  stories  from  the  original  authorities  of 
history.  We  had  various  books  which  contained  stories 
bearing  on  every  reign,  and  since  these  stories  were  trans- 
lated or  adapted  from  the  best-known  authority  on  each 
subject,  we  regarded  them  as  authentic. 

These  books  were  left  in  an  easily  accessible  place  with 
no  locked  doors,  or  elaborate  cupboards  where  they  might 
be  stored  and  neglected.  Every  pupil  knew  that,  as  soon 
as  he  or  she  could  read,  the  books  might  be  freely  con- 
sulted and  used  for  reading,  reference,  or  making  notes 
at  any  time,  either  before,  after,  or  during  school  hours. 
Our  free  system  of  discipline  allowed  pupils  to  hold  quiet 
discussions  together,  —  either  at  the  library  shelf  or  at 
their  desks,  —  and  I  found  the  more  I  trusted  them,  the 
more  trustworthy  and  unsuspecting  they  became.  One 
would  see  a  child  quietly  get  up,  walk  to  the  shelf,  hunt 
through  the  books  for  a  probably  useful  one  on  the  subject 
in  hand,  spend  a  little  quiet  time  turning  the  pages,  be- 
come absorbed,  raise  his  head  and  say,  "Miss  Johnson, 
there  is  so-and-so  in  this  book!"  or  "Here's  the  very 
thing  we  want  —  can't  we  put  this  in  such-and-such  a 
play .?  "  or  take  out  a  notebook,  always  kept  handy,  and 
busily  make  pencil  notes. 


32       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

.  There  was  often  quite  a  msh  for  the  driest  of  history 
w;-  books,  because  such  books  supphed  all  the  facts  without 
too  much  padding,  and  were  most  useful  and  reliable  in 
tracing  the  life  histories  of  notable  personages.  For  the 
same  reason  biographies  were  eagerly  sought  —  not  be- 
cause the  pupils  had  been  told  to  study  biographies,  mark 
^  you,  but  because  they  had,  foj-  themselves,  discovered  their 
intrinsic  value.  I  cannot  too  often  or  too  strongly  insist 
on  this  point ;  namely,  the  way  in  which  the  dramatic 
;  method  made  the  pupils  of  our  school  self-reliant,  largely 
self-taught,  and  self-developing.  How  many  generations 
of  children  have  turned  with  disgust  and  loathing  from 
the  dry-as-dust  textbook  (for  examination  purposes)  — 
history  served  up  to  them  in  an  undigestible  mass  !  I,  my- 
self, have  been  among  the  number.  After  all,  it  makes 
all  the  difference  in  the  world  how  one's  food  is  served 
up.  If  it  looks  attractive  and  dainty,  it  is  eaten  with  relish. 
Just  as  food  enjoyed  nourishes  the  body,  so  lessons  enjoyed 
are  readily  assimilated  by  the  mind.  Thus  instead  of  turn- 
ing from  the  dry  textbooks  and  fact  lore,  my  pupils  vol- 
untarily asked  for  them,  and  used  them  well.  It  was  the 
case  over  again  of  the  food  rendered  attractive.  Why .? 
Because  we  had  put  the  textbook  ///  its  proper  place  — 
not  as  the  principal  means,  but  merely  as  a  reference, 
and  for  assistance.  It  has  often  been  argued  against  our 
method  that  it  taught  the  pupils  to  rely  on  themselves  too 
much,  and  on  books  too  litde  —  that  the  children  neglected 
/  books  too  much.  The  fact  is,  the  basis  of  all  their  work 
was  not  one  book,  but  manv  books. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY  BY   PLAYS        33 

No  play  was  adapted  from  any  one  book.  All  the 
authorities  on  the  subject  of  the  play  were  consulted,  brought 
together  in  note  form,  and  reviewed.  The  best  material 
was  then  selected  from,  each,  and  any  hiatus  supplied 
from  the  intelligent  imagination  of  any  member  of  the 
class  who  hit  the  "  public  opinion  "  on  the  matter.  (We 
were  a  very  united  community  !) 

As  soon  as  the  necessary  material  —  or,  at  least,  suffi- 
cient to  make  a  fair  start  —  had  been  collected,  the  next 
step  was  naturally  to  choose  characters,  cast  parts,  and 
either  read  the  play  through  or  tentatively  rehearse.  Here, 
again,  our  system  of  freedom  of  discipline  served  us  in 
good  stead.  It  did  not  take  very  long  to  discover  among 
the  scholars  a  bold  moving  spirit.  In  other  circumstances 
he  might  have  been  warped  into  a  ringleader  or  black 
sheep.  I  soon  found  I  had  merely  to  say  to  him  :  "John, 
suppose  you  take  the  books  and  go  with  the  boys  out  into 
the  playground.  I  dare  say  you  can  all  manage  to  choose 
your  parts.  See  what  sort  of  a  play  you  can  make  from 
what  you  have  collected."  In  less  time  than  one  would 
think  possible,  they  would  be  back,  tapping  on  the  school- 
room door,  with  the  play  in  such  a  condition  that  I  would 
be  quite  astonished  at  the  originality  and  individuality 
shown.  At  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  noticeable  fea- 
tures was  the  way  in  which  the  pupils,  children  as  they 
were,  would  bring  out,  apparently  quite  casually  and  without 
effort,  the  salient  points  of  the  history  they  were  engaged 
in  Icai'uing  without  being  taught  formally.  They  showed, 
too,  a  marvelous  aptitude  for  casting  the  right  pupils  for 


34       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

parts,  in  which  task  they  were  doubtless  much  aided  by 
John  and  his  successors.  No  doubt,  too,  the  tone  of  the 
school  —  its  new  school  tradition  —  helped  those  who  felt 
they  could  interpret  a  part  to  declare  themselves  ;  and  it 
seemed  an  unwritten  law  that  any  one  who  volunteered 
in  this  way  should  be  given  a  fair  trial,  the  volunteer 
always  realizing  that  if  he  proved  unsuitable  in  the  opinion 
of  the  majority,  he  should  make  way  for  some  one  else. 

"  What  happened  to  the  pupils  for  whom  no  parts  could 
be  found  ?"  I  hear  )-ou  ask.  Whenever  it  was  possible, 
they  were  worked  into  a  "  crowd  "  of  citizens,  or  an 
"army,"  or  a  "crew";  but  where  this  was  out  of  the 
question,  they  sat  at  their  desks  and  formed  a  "chorus," 
whose  duty  it  was  to  announce  players,  fill  up  gaps  in  the 
play  with  explanations,  tell  dates,  and  give  suggestions. 
In  fact,  they  were  made  b)'  every  means  to  feel  that  they 
w^ere  necessary  to  and  a  part  of  the  play,  and  of  course 
they  learned  a  great  deal  of  history  and  "  English  "  by 
listening  and  commenting,  arid  they  were  very  acti\e  at 
this.  All  this  did  away  with  the  idea  of  "audience"  and 
consequently  with  "  acting  for  display,"  self-consciousness, 
nerves,  and  possible  jealousy  and  heartburnings,  of  which, 
of  course,  we  desired  to  steer  clear. 

As  regards  space,  apparatus,  properties,  and  time,  we 
used,  when  acting  in  school,  merely  the  ordinary  space  in 
front  of  the  class — about  twenty  feet  by  six  feet,  or  rather 
less.  A  door  opening  out  of  it  led  into  the  hall,  and  an- 
other door  led  into  the  classroom,  which  could  be  used  in 
an  emergency.    We  found  this  especially  convenient  when. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY  BY  PLAYS        35 

as  often  happened,  one  pupil  had  to  impersonate  two  char- 
acters and  needed  to  make  a  quick  change.  Our  apparatus 
was  very  simple.  It  consisted  mainly  of  the  school  furni- 
ture, which  I  am  sure  pleased  the  pupils  more  than  the 
most  elaborate  scenery  I  could  have  provided.  They  simply 
howled  with  delight  when  "  Charles  II  "  was  hidden  in  a 
real  cupboard  —  the  more  so  as  ''  Charles"  proved  to  be  a 
very  substantial  boy,  highly  difficult  to  stow  away  between 
narrow  shelves.  He  comported  himself  like  a  true  "  Royal 
Martyr"  of  the  Stuart  brand,  and  endured  agonies  of 
thumpings  and  pummelings  by  the  anxious  actors,  who 
desired  to  shut  the  cupboard  door  before  the  ''  Round- 
heads "  arrived.  Ingenuity  decreed,  on  another  occasion, 
that  "Scrooge"  (of  Dickens's  "Christmas  Carol"  fame) 
should  look  out  of  a  window  consisting  of  the  top  of  a 
blackboard  easel  with  a  movable  rail  for  hanging  diagrams 
before  the  class.  This  scheme  was  enjoyed  tremendously, 
and  the  inventor  was  loudly  praised.  This  was  a  most 
noticeable  outcome  of  the  method  of  work  :  pupils  would 
always  praise  good  work  in  others,  and  if  their  compan- 
ions appeared  unnoticed  when  praise  was  due,  they  drew 
attention  to  what  they  had  done. 

When  reading,  a  short  while  ago,  Richard  Jefferies's 
book  "Bevis,"  I  came  across  the  following  paragraph,^ 
which  emphasizes  very  strongly  my  plea  for  self-made 
and  self-planned  properties  :  "  He  knew  that  the  greatest 
pleasure  is  always  obtained  from  inferior  and  incomplete 
instruments.    Present  a  perfect  yacht,  a  beautiful  horse,  a 

ip.  217. 


36       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

fine  gun,   or  anything  complete  to  a  beginner,  and  the 
edge  of  his  enjoyment  is  dulled  with  too  speedy  posses- 
sion.   The  best  way  to  learn  to  ride  is  on  a  rough  pony." 
The  boys,  of  course,  always  enjoyed  battle  scenes,  and 
^    made  different  "properties"  for  use  in  different  battles,  in 
order  that  the  various  reigns  and  periods  might  not  be 
^  confused.   Thus  for  early  English  times  they  manufactured 
N    halberds,    or   "brown    bills,"   out    of  cardboard   (for  the 
metal  work)  and  broom  handles.    Big  brothers  and  fathers 
at  home  became  interested  at  this  point,  and  "properties  " 
which  were  well  w^orth  preserving  for  future  use  began  to 
^  come  in  to  us  so  fast  that  we  had  to  set  up  a  cupboard 
for  storing  them.    Thus  one  father 
made  a  beautiful  brass  crown    inset 
with  colored  glass  jewels.    Several 
persons  presented  us  with  wooden 
swords  —  the  blades  w^ere  silvered, 
and  generally  the  handles  were  of  -bent  tin  and  had  some 
little  realistic  touch.   An  older  brother  carved  and  contrived 
some  daggers  in  sheaths.    Again,  in  this  instance,  the  de- 
^  sign  had  been  faithfully  copied  from  a  history  ;  the  carver 
was  a  former  pupil  of  the  school,  who  still  kept  up  his 
<^  interest.    In  planning  our  armies  we  always  found  out  from 
'    the  histories  the  real  numbers  on  each  side,  and  kept  ours 
as  nearly  as  possible  in  proportion.    Thus  in  "Agincourt  " 
we  ranged  our  English  and  French  seven  to  one.    In  the 
trial  of  Charles  I  we  arranged  that  the  court  should  contain 
six  men  to  represent  sixty,  and  the  "  chorus  "  always  told 
.us  that  there  were  sixty  men  present. 


TIIK  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY  IJV   PLAYS 


17 


Sea  maneuYers  were  popular,  and  we  refought  man\-  a    >< 
battle  between  English  and  I^utch.    For  these  I  allowed 
the  boys  to  bring  their  soap  boxes  on  wheels,  generally 


preferring  those  with  guiding  wheels  in  front.  It  was 
great  fun  when  the  boys  maneuvered  into  position  (after 
many  capsizings  and  accidents)  with  their  cannon  and  fire- 
arms on  board.  Once  the  Dutch  leader  had  his  box  boat 
turned  into  the  semblance  of  a  real  ship  by  covering  it 


38       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

with  cardboard  over  a  cane-work  skeleton,  and  rigging 
masts  and  sails  of  paper.  To  add  the  realistic  touch  each 
boy  had  plenty  of  chains  on  his  boat  to  rattle  when  he 
dropped  or  weighed  anchor.  The  next  morning,  long  be- 
fore nine  o'clock,  I  surprised  all  the  first-class  boys  with 
heads  together  over  a  history  with  illustrations,  looking 
up  material  for  another  bout  with  Van  Tromp.  The  soap 
boxes  on  wheels  (cube-sugar  boxes  too,  sometimes)  were 
one  of  our  most  valuable  assets.  The  boys  picked  the 
wheels  up  from  ragmen  or  marine  stores  for  a  few  cents 
each,  and  found  them  very  handy  in  their  own  little  gar- 
dens, using  the  boxes  as  wheelbarrows.  Anon  they  did 
duty  for  ships  on  voyages  of  discovery  to  other  lands,  and 
were  very  skillfully  manipulated  past  dangerous  shores, 
where  desks — I  mean  capes  —  projected.  "Queen  Eliz- 
abeth's" state  barge  was  a  soap  box  —  on  this  occasion 
draped  in  red  cloth.  If  no  soap  box  was  available  on  history 
day,  however,  no  one  was  at  a  loss,  for  a  bench,  inverted, 
was  slowly  and  gracefully  dragged  across  the  floor  with  "her 
Majesty"  seated  thereon.  "Charles  11"  escaped  to  France 
in  a  disused  bathtub,  which  rocked  beautifully.  From  the 
same  tub  fishermen  on  the  Volga  hooked  giant  "fish  "  in 
the  shape  of  the  school  dusters.  One  of  the  most  comical 
properties  w^as  a  set  of  brown-paper  animals'  skins,  into 
which  small  boys  would  creep,  and  add  a  very  realistic 
touch  to  geography  and  other  plays.  "John,"  before  men- 
tioned, designed  and  painted  these,  and  the  girls  sewed 
them  up.  Another  ingenious  boy  cut  a  suit  of  Saxon 
serf's  garments  out  of  sacking  and  sewed  them  at  home 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY   BY  PLAYS        39 

by  himself.  The  girls,  of  course,  could  do  much  in  mak- 
ing costumes,  and  we  soon  found  that  certain  stock  gar- 
ments were  wanted  which  could  be  used  for  most  history 
plays.  These,  of  course,  saved  the  trouble  of  making  fresh 
costumes  every  time.  For  instance,  there  was  generally  a 
king,  and  of  course  he  would  wear  a  crimson  cloak  trimmed 
with  ermine  (wadding  painted  with  dots  of  ink)  and  a 
crown.  A  scepter  was  made  by  a  father  out  of  a  brass 
bedpost  cut  short.  It  was  useful  also  to  have  a  bishop's 
miter  of  brown  paper  covered  with  gold  paper.  Queen's 
and  court  ladies'  robes  were  fashioned  of  white  lace  win- 
dow curtains  pinned  at  the  shoulders  and  allowed  to  trail. 
A  court  jester's  cap  and  bells  were  easy  to  make.  A  few 
pairs  of  sateen  knickerbockers  and  short  cloaks  were  made 
by  the  girls  from  patterns  supplied  by  a  pupil's  mother, 
and  these  could  be  adapted  to  many  periods.  Coarse  string 
or  knitting  cotton  made  up  into  "shirts  of  mail"  was  dyed 
with  ink  and  afterwards  touched  up  with  silver  paint  to 
give  a  tarnished  metal  appearance.  Womens'  discarded 
black  stockings  made  long  "  trunk  hose"  for  the  boys.  A 
crowning  triumph  was  the  fashioning,  by  the  girls,  of  naval  )C 
officers'  coats,  for  use  by  "  Nelson  "  and  his  officers,  out 
of  old  black  and  navy  blue  skirts,  with  large  silver-papered 
buttons.  True,  "  Hardy  "  soon  grew  out  of  his  coat,  and 
looked  as  funny  as  a  Cruikshank  illustration,  with  his  waist 
buttons  halfway  up  his  back  and  his  wristbands  almost  at 
his  elbows. 

The   tea-paper   armor  was   always   mounted   on   either 
stout  brown   paper  or  cardboard,   so    that    it   should    not 


40       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

become  ragged.  We  found  ordinary  paper  fasteners  suit- 
able for  joints,  and  where  it  was  possible  to  use  them  they 
were  more  serviceable  than  stitches.  Paper  fasteners  also 
made  very  effective  "  studs  "  for  shields,  and  the  most 
successful  costume  we  ever  made  was  one  for  Edward  when 

^we  played  "  The  Burghers  of  Calais."  We  cut  out  a  large 
shield  in  cardboard  and  bent  it  slighdy.  This  we  covered 
carefully  with  white  cartridge  paper,  overlapping  the  paper 
at  the  edges  and  attaching  it  to  the  cardboard  with  brass 
paper  fasteners  as   "  studs."     Next  we  cut  out  the  royal 

w  arms  of  England  in  gold  paper  and  carefully  pasted  them 
on  the  shield.  We  then  made  Edward  a  cloak  of  white 
cotton  cloth  and  bordered  it  with  gold  paper.  Our  method 
of  fastening  gold  paper  to  this  cloth  was  our  own,  and  we 
found  it  practicable.  W^e  mixed  a  tablespoonful  of  starch 
with  boiling  water,  and  when  it  cooled  applied  it  to  the 
back  of  our  strips  and  patterns  of  gold  paper.  These  w^e 
laid  carefully  in  position  on  the  cloth  and  then  ironed 
them  flat  with  a  hot  flatiron.  The  patterns  then  looked  as 
though  they  had  been  painted  or  embroidered  on  the  gar- 
ment. This  form  of  decoration  was  easy  and  effective, 
and  looked  especially  well  when  the  golden  fleur-de-lis  was 
used  as  the  pattern  for  bordering.  Odd  strings  of  beads 
given  by  the  pupils  from  time  to  time  answered  for 
''jewels,"  and  our  armory  included  some  homemade  bows 
and  arrow^s.  These  articles  were  all  kept  in  one  cupboard, 
duly  labeled,  ready  for  immxcdiate  use,  and  were  looked 
upon  in  the  light  of  school  apparatus  as  much  as  sets  of 
historical   readers  or  piles  of  slates  ;  and   we  considered 


THE  TEACHING  OF  HISTORY    HV   PLAYS        4I 

them  no  more  trouble  to  attend  to  and  keep  tidy.  We 
found  that  children  of  the  upper  classes  were  generally  of 
a  fairly  uniform  size,  and  we  always  renewed  such  things 
as  paper  headgear  when  a  new  actor  had  to  take  a  certain 
part,  so  that  there  should  be  no  danger  of  infection. 

We  tried,  when  possible,  to  arrange  that  the  boy  who 
had  once  been  a  king  should  not  be  another  king  —  at  all 
events  during  the  same  school  year.  We  hoped  in  this 
way  to  avoid  confusion  of  reigns  in  the  pupils'  minds. 
We  treated  all  important  personages,  such  as  Nelson,  in 
the  same  way. 

The  time  occupied  by  history  plays  proper  consisted  of 
that  set  apart  for  history  lessons,  because  we  considered 
our  play  in  the  light  of  a  lesson.  We  had  two  of  these 
each  week,  one  of  a  half  hour's  duration,  and  one  of  one 
hour.  Preparation  had  to  occupy  the  pupils'  own  leisure 
time  and  odd  minutes  in  school,  many  of  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  wasted  ;  while  for  the  making  of  notes 
an  occasional  writing  lesson  was  set  apart.  Once  a  week 
we  had  what  we  termed  a  "  library  morning,"  when -each 
pupil  was  allowed  to  take  a  book  from  the  library  shelf 
and  read  it  silently  at  his  desk.  Questions  might  be  asked 
and  answered,  and  little  discussions  were  permitted,  so 
long  as  only  one  person  spoke  at  a  time  and  the  general 
order  and  quiet  of  the  class  was  not  upset  too  much.  Then 
it  was  that  the  most  valuable  discoveries  were  made  for 
possible  "plays,"  and  a  good  deal  of  the  preparation  done. 

Frequently,  too,  while  on  an  expedition  or  "  nature 
ramble  "  in  the  summer  time,  we  would  be  out  of  doors 


42       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

the  whole  morning.    Then  when  the  ordinary  playtime 

arrived  we  would  arrange  ourselves  on  the  side  of  the 

downs  or  in  a  little  copse,  and  go  through  a  short  history 

play ;  occasionally  we  would  arrange  a  new  and  impromptu 

one.     Sometimes  these  were  very  well  arranged  by  the 

children ;   often   they   were    better,   from    an    educational 

standpoint,   than   plays    to   which   more   preparation   had 

^   been  given.    At  the  time  of  the  Quebec  pageant  in  mem- 

>    ory  of  the  gallant  Wolfe,  the  boys  arranged  a  most  suc- 

^.  cessful  and  thrilling  "Wolfe  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham" 

in  a  disused  chalk  pit,  where  they  could  scale  the  heights 

most   realistically.    And    of    course   Charles    II   and   the 

Boscobel  Oak  episode  could  be  played  to  perfection  only 

in  a  little  wooded  plantation.    Scenes  from  their  favorite 

^  "  Ivanhoe  "  were  the  delight  of  their  hearts  on  summer 

afternoons  under  the  shade  of  the  greenwood  tree. 

And  here,  in  passing,  as  an  example  of  how  this  kind 
of  teaching  was  training  the  pupils  to  a  sense  of  the  fitness 
of  things  (a  splendid  possession  through  life!),  I  ought 
to  mention  that  they  soon  began  to  quote  from  good 
authors  quite  appropriately  and  naturally.  On  the  first 
occasion  on  which  they  tried  scenes  from  "'  Ivanhoe,"  out 
in  the  litde  wooded  spot,  they  naturally  connected  their 
Locksley  or  Robin  Hood  and  his  bold  outlaws  with  the 
greenwood  tree,  and  needs  must  pose  themselves  like  a 
band  of  "  merr)-  men  "  enjoying  an  evening  rest,  while  an 
unseen  chorus  of  girls  behind  the  trees  sang  "  Under  the 
Greenwood  Tree,"  to  Dr.  Arne's  setting.  A  finer  effect  I 
have  never  heard  from  the  most  practiced  of  singers,  the 


T  H  E  T  E  A  CI  1 1  N  G  OF  HIS  T  ()  R  ^     ]\\   PI.  A  \  S        43 

voices  mellowed  by  the  open  air  —  young,  fresh  voices  — 
and  the  birds  in  the  trees  overhead  echoing  and  vying 
with  their  song !  After  all,  7i>/n'  do  wc  si?ig  ?  To  please 
the  sense  of  hearing,  and  also  a  deeper,  more  ccsthetic 
sense.  Then  our  children  should  learn  to  sing  artistically 
and  in  the  open  air.  And  docs  the  ordinary  school  singing 
please  the  senses }  Does  it  not  lack  spontaneity  "^  Then 
let  your  pupils  use  their  singing  for  a  purpose,  and  you 
will  find  that  they  will  realize  what  is  required  instinctively 
and  supply  the  effect.  I  called  this  little  tableau  "  drama- 
tizing" their  singing.  Some  may  question  the  effect  on 
the  listeners.  What  I  saw  was  a  group  of  silent,  thoughtful- 
looking  boys,  resting  in  perfectly  natural  poses,  and  sobered 
in  spite  of  their  )outh  and  boisterous,  boyish  spirits,  to  a 
quiet,  listening  attitude.  I  have  not  the  faintest  doubt  that 
theirs  was  perfect  enjoyment,  for  the  spell  was  not  broken 
when  the  song  ceased.  I  did  not  question  them  as  to 
their  sensations,  nor  ask  if  they  enjoyed  the  music,  nor 
what  their  impressions  of  it  were.  I  doubt  if  they  could 
have  told  me  in  so  many  words.  But  they  have  often, 
since  then,  asked  to  have  the  song  again  in  school,  and 
the  boys  have  always  supplied  the  soft  whistling  of  the  birds 
as  an  accompaniment  because  the  real  birds  were  missing. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  ADAPTED    PLAY 

AS  an  example  of  what  I  may  call  an  "adapted"  play, 
.  and  more  particularly  one  for  girls  as  well  as  boys, 
I  give  that  on  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  as  it  was  partly 
adapted  from  "Kenilworth"  and  partly  originated  by  indi- 
vidual scholars.  It  is  copied  from  one  of  the  girls'  note- 
books. The  bo\s  had  fixed  up  the  movable  blackboard 
table  as  a  tobacco  stall  ;  other  stalls  were  arranged  on  the 
front  desks  ;  while  the  space  in  front  was  supposed  to  rep- 
resent a  street  in  old  London  —  the  chorus  generally  said 
Cheapside.  All  those  ta'king  part  in  the  play  were  ranged 
at  one  end  of  the  room,  which  we  called  "off  stage."  Those 
left  seated  in  the  desks  and  called  "chorus  "  then  described 
the  scene  as  they  imagined  it  to  be  —  narrow  streets  badly 
paved  wdth  cobblestones,  stalls  with  market  women  keep- 
ing them  and  calling  their  wares,  and  idle  apprentices. 

Scene  I.     The  Market 

Enter  tivo  Market  Women  witJi  baskets  ofwairs.  Appren- 
tices seattered  about  the  stalls,  ealling,  "What  d'ye 
lack  .?  " 
First  Woman.    Hast  heard  the  news  that  Philip  hath 
sent  a  large  fleet  of  ships  to  I^ngland  against  us  } 

44 


45 


THE  ADAPTED  PLAY  47 

Second  Woman.   Odds,  woman  !  thou  dost  surprise  me. 

First  Woman.  There  are  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
them,  and  I  did  hear  that  a  man  named  Drake  and  some 
of  his  friends  were  playing  at  bowls  down  at  Plymouth 
Hoe,  when  another  man  came  riding  up  to  them  and  told 
them  that  the  Spanish  were  in  the  Channel.  The  good 
Queen,  God  bless  her !  went  down  to  see  the  army,  riding 
on  her  gray  pony. 


Enter  Third  Market  Woman,  7vJiilc  a  Man  draws  near  to 
listcji,  catiii!^  a  large  apple 

Third  Woman.  Do  you  know  that  the  English  are 
sending  out  fire  ships  } 

Second  Woman.   Lawk-a-mussey-me  !  What  are  they  .'' 

Third  Woman.  Why,  they  are  old  vessels  filled  with 
tar,  and  gunpowder,  and  things  that  will  burn  easily.  They 
turn  these  adrift  among  the  enemy's  ships  and  they  either 
set  fire  to  the  other  ships  or  blow  them  up. 

Second  Woman.  They  say  the  Spanish  ships  sail  in  a 
half-moon  shape. 

Man.  [  WitJi  apple']  Ah,  it  wants  stout  English  hearts 
like  mine  to  fight  the  Spaniards  ! 

First  Woman.  Methinks  your  stomach  is  greater  than 
your  heart. 

Second  Woman.  Yes,  judging  by  the  size  of  his  apple 
—  but  hark  !  here  comes  the  Queen.  We  must  be  off  to 
our  stalls. 


48       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OE  TEACHING 
Enter  Queen  Elizabeth,  Court  Ladies,  and  Courtiers 

Market  Women.    What  cV  ye  lack  ?  What  d'  ye  lack  ? 

First  Woman.  \Cnrtsies\  Ribbons  and  laces  for  sweet 
pretty  faces,  your  Majest)'! 

First  Court  Ladv.  I  -will  have  a  yard  of  sarcenet  to 
deck  my  bodice  for  this  evening's  morris  dance. 

Second  Woman.  Nice,  fresh  arum  roots  to  stiffen  the 
ladies'  ruffles,  your  Majesty! 

OuEEN.  Yes,  my  ruffles  are  exceedingly  limp.  I  will 
have  a  pound  sent  to  the  palace. 

Third  \V()max.  Woundwort,  to  cure  cuts  and  bruises, 
your  Majesty! 

Court  Lady.  Oh,  vour  Majesty,  do  you  not  remember 
that  poor  soldier  who  was  wounded  in  a  bout  at  quarter- 
staff  last  night } 

Queen.  Indeed,  poor  fellow!  then  see  that  he  has 
some  woundwort  made  into  poultices  and  applied  to  his 
sore  pate. 

Third  Woman.  Stitchwort,  to  cure  stitch  in  the  side, 
your  Majesty! 

Second  Woman.  Rosemary  and  thyme  to  scent  the 
floors  with,  your  Majesty! 

Court  Lady.  See,  your  Majesty,  the  new  flower  called 
wallflower,  brought  from  America ! 

Queen.  Methinks  I  should  like  to  smell  that  sweet 
flow^er.  [Market  Woman  presents  a  b?ineh,  iv/iieh  the 
Queen  S7nffs  daintily.  They  pass  along  nntil  they  reach 
tobacco  staW]    See,  my  ladies,  the  new  stuff  called  tobacco, 


'.5     >    > 


49 


THE  ADAPTED   PLAY  5  I 

brought  from  Virginia !  [Courtiers  stop  and  pure  Jiase  cigars 
and  aivkwardly  light  tlicni ;  the  Queen  nieanzvhile  passes 
on  afezv  steps\  Oh,  this  muddy  pool  —  what  shall  we  do, 
my  ladies?  And  my  feet  are  so  lightly  shod!  [WAr/rEK 
Raleigh  steps  forward  and  graeefidly  places  the  cloak 
zvhich  he  has  worn  lightly  on  his  shoulders  over  the 
muddy  spot  —  remaining  kneeling  on  one  knee  ivJiile  the 
Ladies,  headed  by  the  Queen,  pass  over  diy-shod]  Who 
is  that  young  courtier  ? 

First  Court  Lady.  He  is  one  Walter  Raleigh,  your 
Majesty,  who  sailed  the  oceans  wide,  and  brought  back  the 
tobacco,  and  the  potato,  and  the  wallflower  from  Virginia. 

Second  Court  Lady.  And  called  it  Virginia  after  the 
Virgin  Queen,  your  Majesty. 

Queen.  Well,  bring  him  to  the  palace,  and  perhaps  we 
shall  find  him  a  post  there.    Now  to  the  barge,  my  ladies. 

\^Exeunt  all  slowly\ 


The  words  of  this  scene  the  children  obtained  from 
various  sources,  and  invented  all  they  could  not  so  obtain. 
It  was  characteristic  of  them  that  they  worked  in  a  little 
of  their  nature  study  when  they  alluded  to  "  woundwort," 
"-  stitch  wort,"  and  "  arum  roots."  It  is  a  fact  that  wild 
arum  (cuckoopint)  tubers  contain  starch,  which  was  used 
for  starching  ruffs  in  Elizabeth's  reign.  The  children  dis- 
covered the  starch  by  applying  iodine  and  obtaining  a 
purple-colored  reaction. 


52       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

The  children  next  changed  the  scene  to  Kenihvorth 
Castle,  and  borrowed  the  wording  of  their  scene  from 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  "Kenil worth." 


Scene  II.    KenihvortJi  Castle,  dcscj'ibcd  by  Chorus 
as  usual 

Music  ■ —  something  stately  —  treuerally  a  gavotte.  Court- 
iers and  Ladies  enter,  a  feiv  at  a  time.  The  various 
groups  greet  one  anotJier  with  profound,  courtly  boivs 
and  the  deepest  of  curtsies.  Music  grows  louder  and 
imitates  fanfare  of  trumpets.  Enter  Oueex.  The 
Courtiers  and  Ladies/^?//  back  into  tzvo  lines,  and  the 
Queen  bows  from  side  to  side.  Her  Ladies  accompany 
hei%  and  Pages  carry  her  train.  Queen  sits  dowji, 
and  all  the  Ladies  ajid  Gentlemen  group  themselves 
about  her 

Queen.    Bring  in  that  young  courtier. 

Courtier.  Yes,  your  Majesty.  [Goes  out,  boiving.  His 
voice  is  then  heard]  The  Queen  requires  you  in  her 
presence. 

Enter  Raleigh.    He  kneels  in  front  of  tJie  Queen 

Queen.  You  have,  young  man,  spoilt  a  gay  mantle  in 
our  service.  We  thank  you  for  your  courtesy,  but  your 
gallantry  shall  not  go  unrewarded.  Go  to  the  wardrobe 
keeper    and    he    shall   supply    you   with   a   suit   quite   of 


S3 


THE  ADAPTED  PLAV  55 

the  latest  cut.  [Raleigh  shakes  his  head  and  makes  a 
sigji  as  if  he  deeliiied  the  Queen's  present']  How  now, 
boy?  What  wouldst  thou  have  of  me — neither  gold  nor 
garment  ? 

Raleigh.  Only  permission,  madam,  to  wear  my  own 
cloak. 

Queen.  To  wear  thine  own  muddy  cloak,  thou  silly 
boy  !    Heard  ye  ever  the  likes,  my  lords  1 

Raleigh.  It  is  no  longer  my  cloak,  since  your  Maj- 
esty's foot  hath  trodden  upon  it. 

Queen.  Then  we  will  reward  you  in  our  own  way. 
Your  sword,  Essex.  \TJie  Eakl  kneels  and  hands  his 
siuord  to  the  Queen,  zvho  strikes  Raleigh  lightly  over 
the  shonlder  with  it]  Rise,  ^Vr  Walter  Raleigh.  [Raleigh 
rises  graeefully,  while  the  other  Courtiers  shoiv  jealousy 
and  look  displeased] 

Essex.  Will  you  knight  my  friend,  Nicholas  Blount, 
your  Majesty  t 

Queen.  Yes  —  bring  him  in.  [Blount  is  fetehed] 
Your  sword,  Essex !  Rise,  Sir  Nicholas  Blount !  [He 
rises  awkwardly  and  elntehes  at  the  Queen  to  save 
himself] 

EiKST  Court  Lad  v.  Did  you  see  how  awkwardly  he 
arose,  your  Majesty .f* 

Second  Court  Lady.    I  heard  his  collar  bone  rattle. 

Queen.  [LaugJdng]  Yes,  I  did  give  him  a  smart  tap. 
Now  we  will  have  a  dance.  [  TJiey  dance  a  stately  measure^ 
Now  to  the  banquet  —  your  arm,  Essex.         [Exeunt  all] 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ORIGINAL  PLAY 

A  SLIGHTLY  different  kind  of  pla\'  I  have  termed 
the  original  play.  In  arranging  these  the  pupils 
themselves  collected  all  the  material  from  histories  proper, 
and  did  not  in  any  way  rely  on  works  of  fiction  or  the  his- 
torical novel  or  storybook  for  their  dialogue.  Naturally, 
as  they  were  acting  history,  they  had  to  get  facts  from 
some  record  in  the  same  way  as  an  ordinary  dramatist 
must  do.  Therefore  they  consulted  the  historians  but  not 
the  writers  of  fiction.  This  kind  of  play  was  consequently 
more  difficult  to  get  in  form  than  such  a  play  as  "  Eliza- 
beth," in  which  much  of  the  dialogue  was  taken  directly 
from  books.  One  of  the  most  successful  of  these  "  origi- 
nal "  historical  plays  was  that  called  "  Charles  I."  For 
this  the  pupils  chose  six  boys  to  be  dressed  as  Puritans 
and  represent  sixty,  ranged  on  seats  in  the  usual  front 
space,  now  called  by  the  chorus  Westminster  Hall.  Each 
boy  wore  a  tall  stovepipe  hat  of  brown  paper  (made  by  the 
girls  and  painted  black  with  ink)  to  show  that  he  was  a 
Puritan.  As  the  class  agreed  that  the  Puritans  should  be 
stern  men,  the  sort  of  men  to  "  stand  no  nonsense,"  each 
boy  was  always  careful  to  wear  a  \'ery  sober,  not  to  say  stern, 
visage.    The  way  in  which  they  preserved  their  gravity 

56 


THE  ORIGINAL  PLAV  57 

was  quite  marvelous  —  in  fact,  they  were  so  much  "in  the 
play,"  heart  and  soul,  that  they  did  not  think  of  anything 
but  the  proper  demeanor.  Other  characters  chosen  were 
"  Bradshaw,"  the  judge,  in  his  famous  black  hat,  which 
the  girls  also  constructed,  making  it  extra  large  to  dis- 
tinguish him  from  the  others;  "Cromwell,"  wearing  a 
sword  to  distinguish  him  as  the  head  of  the  Ironsides  ; 
"Coke,"  the  clerk  of  the  court,  wearing  robes  (sheets),  and 
holding  a  scroll  of  paper  (from  which,  by  the  way,  he  read 
his  part  to  save  learning  it  by  heart  at  first);  "Charles  I," 
wearing  a  curled  wig,  which  deserves  a  paragraph  all  to 
itself. 

It  was  designed  and  made  bv  one  of  the  older  girls. 
She  made  the  foundation  b\-  crocheting  a  skull  cap  of 
wool,  and  to  this  she  sewed  strands  of  frayed  rope  which 
looked  like  fine  glossy  hair.  When  she  reached  this  stage 
it  was  tried  on  a  boy's  head  and  given  a  "hair  cut"  to 
make  the  ends  even.  Then  the  "hair"  was  carefully 
curled  in  papers  and  pressed,  after  which  it  looked  like 
a  Cavalier's  curled  wig. 

" Charles"  also  wore  very  debonairly  a  black  velvet  "pic- 
ture" hat,  given  by  a  friend.  We  "corked"  his  mustache 
and  short  beard.  He  wore  a  pair  of  the  sateen  knicker- 
bockers and  the  long  stockings  before  alluded  to,  a  sword, 
a  graceful  cloak  (made  out  of  a  woman's  skirt),  buckled 
shoes,  and  carried  a  knobbed  stick  which,  as  it  had  to  do 
duty  in  the  play,  had  the  knob  previously  loosened  so  that 
it  would  fall  off  easilv.  Other  Cavaliers  who  accompanied 
him   also    had    wigs,    knickerbockers,    and    swords.     The 


58       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

"  plumes  "  in  their  hats  were  novel,  consisting  merely  of 
sprays  of  pampas  grass  such  as  are  used  in  vases  for 
decorative  purposes.  The  girls  were  dressed  in  window 
curtains,  with  long  trains,  and  carried  fans  (of  plaited 
paper).  Their  hair  and  headdresses  were  copied  from  pic- 
tures of  the  period  and  were  arranged  before  school  time. 
The  boy  who  acted  as  Coke  in  the  first  scenes  took  the 
part  of  Bishop  Juxon  in  the  later  scenes,  because,  as  he 
was  already  draped  in  "  robes,"  all  he  had  to  do  to  show 
that  he  was  a  bishop  was  to  don  a  miter.  The  two  young 
children  of  Charles,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  little 
Princess  Elizabeth,  were  dressed  as  nearly  as  possible  like 
the  pictures  one  sees  of  them,  and  were  chosen  from  the 
small  children,  so  as  not  to  make  the  "  father  "  look  ridic- 
ulous. "  Princess  PLlizabeth  "  wore  a  close-fitting  lace  cap 
and  had  two  tiny  pages  to  walk  behind  her.  The  boys 
drew  and  painted  a  coat  of  arms  to  take  the  place  of  the 
royal  arms  of  England,  bearing  the  words  "  God  with  us." 
This  they  pinned  on  the  cupboard  door,  where  "  Charles" 
could  not  fail  to  see  it  on  entering.  P'or  the  king  they 
placed  the  high  desk  chair,  so  that  he  might  be  in  a 
prominent  position. 

The  first  scene  was  laid  in  Westminster  Hall  and  rep- 
resented the  "  first  day's  trial."  The  chorus  always  in- 
formed us  that  after  the  first  day's  trial  we  skipped  over 
to  the  seventh  day's  trial.  Here  is  the  play  as  copied 
from  a  pupil's  notebook,  with  comments  by  me. 


59 


THE  ORIGINAL  PLAV  6 1 

Scene  I.     Wcstininstci'  Hall 

Enter  Gentlemen  of  the  Court.     When  all  are  assembled, 
enter  Cromwell 

Cromwell.  Sirs,  we  have  met  here  to-day  to  try  a  cer- 
tain man  named  Charles  Stuart,  who  has  done  much  harm 
to  this  country.  We  have  had  enough  of  his  tyrannies, 
his  Star  Chambers,  and  his  illegal  ways  of  getting  money. 
This  must  be  stopped. 

PuRrrANS.    Yes,  it  must ! 

Cromwell.  He  has  been  taught  by  his  father  the 
divine  right  of  kings,  and  by  the  evil  influence  of  the 
Duke  of  Buckinghamshire,  helped  on  by  his  wife,  he  has 
caused  the  blood  of  many  thousands  to  be  shed. 

Coke.    Yes,  his  evil  influence  has  had  a  great  effect. 

Cromwell.  It  must  be  stopped.  We  must  cut  these 
Stuarts  out,  root  and  branch. 

Enter  Bradshaw 

Bradshaw.    As  we  have  met  here  to-day  to  try  this 
man  named  Charles  Stuart,  go  and  fetch  the  prisoner. 
[Ushers  of   the   Court  go  out  and  reenter,  followed  by 
King   Charles,   accompanied  by  Colonel  Hacker 
and  other  Cavaliers] 

Bradshaw.    Clerk,  read  the  charge. 

Coke.  YReads^^  The  charge  stateth  that,  with  limited 
power  to  govern  according  to  law,  you  should  use  that 
power  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  —  their  rights,  and 
liberties.    But  you  have  tried  to  take  away  the  remedy  for 


62       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

misgovernment,  and  in  making  war  on  the  present  Parlia- 
ment you  have  caused  the  blood  of  many  thousands  to  be 
shed.  All  this  is  against  the  public  interest  and  common 
rights,  liberty,  justice,  and  peace  of  the  people  of  this 
nation.    You  are  a  tyrant  and  a  traitor  ! 

Charles.  Hold!  hold!  \^Hc  touches  Coke  on  the  shoul- 
der luith  his  cane.  The  head  of  the  cane  drops  off  and 
rolls  away.  No  one  stirs  to  pick  it  up,  although  Charles 
looks  round  for  them  to  do  so.    He  picks  it  up  himself] 

Bradshaw.  Remove  the  prisoner.  [Charles  is  re- 
moved, looking  scornfully  around] 

Chorus.    End  of  first  day's  trial. 

Scene  II.     Westnnnster  Hall  six  days  afterwards 

Enter  Gentlemen,  Ushers,  cVr.,  as  before.  TJie  Gentle- 
men talk  in  undertones  and  seem  to  discuss  the  trial 
very  gravely.    Enter  Cromwell 

Cromwell.  Have  you  agreed  on  your  verdict,  gentle- 
men .'' 

JuRVMAX.    Yes,  we  have. 

Cromwell.    What  shall  it  be  t 

Juryman.    Execution. 

Cromwell.  When  it  is  done  it  cannot  be  undone,  so 
decide  carefully,  gentlemen. 

Juryman.    There  is  no  other  way.    It  must  be  done. 

Enter  Bradshaw 

Bradshaw.  Have  }ou  decided  on  your  verdict,  gentle- 
men }    What  shall  it  be  1 


THE  ORIGINAL  PLAY  63 

Jurymen.    Execution  !  execution  ! 

Cromwell.  Come,  we  will  sign  his  death  warrant. 
[77/r  warrant  is  si^^ncd,   scaled,  and  stamped  with  the 

great  seal  of  England.    Coke  holds  it  ont  to  view'] 

Coke.    Will  this  suit  your  wishes,  gentlemen  .? 

Jurymen.    Yes. 

Bradshaw.    Go  and  fetch  the  prisoner. 
[  They  make  their  ivay  to  the  eonrt.    The  Crowd  {represented 
by  the  Chorus  /';/  desks,  with  a  few  standing)  form 
two  lines'] 

Crowd.   Justice  !  justice  !  Execution  !  execution  ! 

Soldier.  [Steps  forwaid as  C\\\v.i.v.^ passes]  God  bless 
you,  your  Majesty  !  [The  Kino  tJianks  him,  but  an  Officer 
strikes  the  Soldier  witJi  his  eane] 

Charles.  Methinks  that  the  punishment  was  greater 
than  the  offense.  [He  turns  to  the  Cavalier  walking  beside 
him]    Did  you  hear  that  cry  for  justice  t 

Cavalier.    Yes,  your  Majesty,  and  I  wondered  at  it. 

Charles.  So  do  not  I.  They  will  do  anything  their 
officer  tells  them,  and  they  would  say  the  same  thing  to 
their  officers,  if  there  were  occasion,  to-morrow.  [TJuy 
enter  the  eonrt] 

Charles.  [Looking  at  the  coat  of  aims]  God  with  us  ! 
Do  you  see  that  coat  of  arms  .? 

Colonel  Hacker.  Yes,  it  is  the  wrong  one  !  [Charles 
glanees  round  the  court,  sits  down,  and  then  starts  up  again] 

Bradshaw.    Clerk,  read  the  sentence. 

Charles.  I  refuse  to  be  tried  by  this  court !  Where  are 
the  peers,  who,  by  the  laws  of  England,  alone  can  try  me  t 


64      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Bradshaw.     We  will  try  you  !    Clerk,  read  the  sentence. 

Coke.  \^Reads']  Hear  the  appointment  and  purpose  of 
this  High  Court  which  the  king  hath  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge. The  sentence  which  you  are  about  to  hear  is  the 
act  and  judgment  of  this  High  Court.  The  charge  is 
proved  upon  you  as  the  principal  culprit,  for  all  of  which 
treasons  and  crimes  this  court  doth  adjudge  that  Charles 
Stuart  is  a  traitor,  murderer,  a  liar  — 

Lady  F'airfax.    It 's  a  lie  ! 

Usher.    Who  spoke  there  ? 

Lady  Fairfax.    I  spoke. 

Usher.    Silence  in  the  court ! 

Bradshaw.    Proceed. 

Coke.  I  repeat,  is  a  traitor,  murderer,  a  liar,  and  a 
public  enemy,  and  shall  be  put  to  death  by  severing  his 
head  from  his  body. 

Bradshaw^  The  sentence  which  you  have  heard  is  the 
act,  sentence,  judgment,  and  resolution  of  the  whole  court. 
Remove  the  prisoner. 

Charles.  \Starting  up\  But,  sir,  I  may  speak  after 
the  sentence. 

Bradshaw.  Sir,  you  are  not  to  be  heard  after  the 
sentence. 

Charles.  [Much  agitated^  I  may  speak  after  the  sen- 
tence !  Always,  by  your  favor,  sir  !  I  may  speak  after  the 
sentence  —  by  your  favor  — 

Bradshaw.    Hold ! 

Charles.  [Being  led  from  court\  They  will  not  let  me 
speak  —  they  will  not  let  me  speak  ! 


65 


THE  ORIGINAL  PLAY  67 

Scene   III.    A  room  in  Whitehall 

Charles  is  seated,  with  Bishop  Juxon,  Colonel  Hacker, 
Colonel  Tomlinson,  and  Sir  Thomas  Herbert 
standing  near 

Charles.    I  should  like  to  see  my  children. 

Bishop  Juxon.  Yes,  your  Majesty.  \^He  goes  ont. 
Reenter  Bishop  Juxon  ivith  Princess  Elizabeth  and 
yonng  Duke  of  Gloucester] 

Charles.  They  are  going  to  cut  off  thy  father's  head, 
my  children. 

Children.    Oh,  father  !  father  ! 

Duke  of  Gloucester.  Do  not  let  them  cut  off  my 
father's  head  ! 

Charles.  They  will  cut  off  thy  brothers'  heads  if  they 
catch  them.  Do  not  you  ever  be  a  king,  my  son,  or  they 
will  cut  off  thy  head  also. 

Duke  of  Gloucester.    I  will  be  torn  in  pieces  first. 

Charles.    Give  my  love  to  your  mother. 

Children.    Yes,  father. 

Charles.    Farewell,  my  children  ! 

Children.  Oh,  father !  father !  [  They  are  led  ont, 
sobbing,  by  Bishop  Juxon.  Charles  falls  on  his  knees, 
and  the  thire  others  do  the  same.  TJie  bell  tolls.  They 
rise,  afid  JvxoN  lays  his  hand  on  Charles's  sho7ilder] 

Bishop  Juxon.  You  have  only  one  stage  more.  It  is 
troublesome,  but  short.  It  will  carry  you  from  earth  to 
heaven.    God  bless  you,  your  Majesty  ! 


68       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Charles.  It  will  carry  me  from  an  earthly  crown  to  a 
heavenly  one.  Farewell !  \To  Herbert]  Take  my  sword. 
\To  Juxon]  Take  my  w^atch.    YTJic  bell  tolls] 

I  could  not  help  being  struck  by  the  manner  in  which 
the  children  had  collaborated  to  bring  out  the  points  of 
the  history  they  desired  to  learn  and  teach, — just  those 
points  which  a  teacher  would  probably  note  down  as  the 
things  necessary  to  emphasize,  —  and  yet  it  was  all  done 
without  effort.  No  doubt  the  reason  was  that  each  actor 
had  his  mind  so  much  on  his  own  part,  and  was  so  much 
in  the  part,  that  he  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the 
"  whys  "  and  the  "  wherefores,"  and  with  causes  and  their 
results.  An  ordinary  class  of  children  sitting  still  at  desks, 
feeling  themselves  to  be  merely  a  class  of  children,  might 
or  might  not  be  interested  enough  to  inquire  for  reasons 
or  results  of  actions.  It  is  doubtful  whether  they  would 
remember  even  what  they  heard,  except  for  a  very  short 
time.  Teachers  have  constantly  to  devise  plans  for  insur- 
ing that  children  not  only  listen  and  pay  attention  but 
also  remember  what  they  hear.  The  truth  is,  that  we  all 
remember  what  we  actually  sec  and  do  better  than  what 
we  merelv  hear  —  perhaps  force  ourselves  to  hear  or  are 
forced  to  hear. 

I  wonder  if  people  ever  reflect  on  the  enormous  num- 
ber of  facts  which  are  talked  mto  children  in  elementary 
schools  for  probably  seven  whole  consecutive  years  !  How^ 
monotonous  it  must  become,  although  the  child  may  not 
realize  that  it  is  monotony  !    \\'hy  should  it  be  considered 


69 


THE  ORIGINAL  PLAY  7  I 

SO  virtuous  a  thing  for  a  class  of  children  to  sit  still  and 
listen,  while  a  teacher  (who  is  probably  often  very  tired  of 
it)  talks  on  every  subject  or  adopts  what  I  call  the  "  stand- 
and-deliver "   attitude,   and    demands   from    the   children 
opinions  which  they  have  not,  as  yet,  formed  !   The  whole 
lecture   and    question-and-answer   system   appears    to   me 
now  to  be  so  dead  —  so  utterly  devoid  of  life  !    If  we  are 
anxious  to  obtain  a  child's  opinions  afid  to  find  out  what  he 
really  knows  (and  consequently  will  remember),  we  should 
confront  him  with  what  he  may  be  expected  to  be  able  to 
assimilate,  and  should  throw  the  whole  responsibility  of  as- 
similation onto  him  ;  in  other  words,  //  is  useless  to  eat 
the  ehilcV  s  food  for  Jiiin ;  he  must  eat  it  himself.    To  lec- 
ture a  child  on  a  certain  subject  and  then  to  ask  him  one 
or  two  questions  on  it  does  not  prove  that  he  has  learned, 
knows,  or  will  remember  anything  about  it.    He  may  make 
a  clever  shot  at  the  answer  or  he  may  be  a  little  ''  parrot." 
And  how  much  useless  lumber  we  may  pack  into  a  child's 
mind  in  seven  years  of  ''fact  teaching !  "    For  instance,  of 
what  practical  value  is  it  for  a  boy  to  know  that  Charles  I 
was  executed  and  said  certain  words  at  his  trial,  and  to 
know  the  number  of  men  who  tried  him,  their  names,  and 
the  dates  when  such  things  took  place  .?   It  may  not  be  the 
facts  themselves  which  are  so  valuable  ;  it  is  the  habit  of 
mijid  iovm^d  while  learning  them  which  makes  their  worth. 
If  a  boy  has  to  search  out  the  facts  for  himself,  for  a  pleas- 
urable object,  he  will  probably  do  it  thoroughly  ;  and  while 
doing  so  he  will  exercise  his  ingenuity,  resourcefulness, 
self-reliance,   and   intelligence.     If  he   does   not   exercise 


72       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

these  powers,  it  is  certain,  by  the  laws  of  nature,  that 
they  will  become  attenuated  for  want  of  use  or  be  lost 
altogether.  And  I  have  heard  frequent  complaints  from 
teachers  that  "  So-and-so,  who  used  to  be  so  very  bright 
in  the  primary  school,  seems  to  have  lost  all  intelligence 
and  is  quite  dull  in  the  simplest  things." 

There  have  been  rumors,  too,  in  other  quarters,  that 
boys  leaving  school  and  beginning  work  are  lacking  in 
initiative  and  self-reliance  —  both  "business"  qualities 
needed  by  boys.  There  is  only  one  way  to  develop  self- 
reliance  and  initiative,  and  that  is  to  exercise  these  powers. 
If  boys  are  expected  to  show  signs  of  possessing  these 
qualities  on  leaving  school,  then  the  time  to  develop  and 
exercise  them  is  ///  school.  There  are  not  many  ways  in 
which  such  powers  can  be  exercised  while  the  pupils 
remain  grouped  in  classes.  It  often  happens  that  indi- 
vidual work  cannot  be  done  in  class.  But  I  have  found 
that  my  dramatic  method  forced  children  to  develop  and 
exercise  these  powers  automatically. 

A  glance  at  the  foregoing  play  will  illustrate  my  remarks. 
The  boy  who  represented  Cromwell  had  to  write  his  own 
speeches,  and  therefore  on  hitn  was  thrown  the  responsi- 
bility of  finding  out  and  putting  together  material.  This 
w'as  the  first  step  toward  developing  self-reliance — respon- 
sibility of  the  individual.  Probably  one  book  of  reference 
failed  him  and  he  di^M^iO'^^di perseverance .  All  books  failed 
him  at  some  junctures  and  he  had  to  display  ingenuity. 
He  had  to  work  in  an  introduction  to  the  play  and  its 
characters,  and  in  a  few  words  describe  the  hero  indirectly 


THE  ORIGINAL  PLA\'  73 

yet  gracefully.  Here  came  in  rcsonrcefidncss.  Glance  at 
his  first  speech  and  see  how  he  accomplished  all  this  with- 
out being  talked  into  it  or  questioned  out  of  it.  He  first  ex- 
plains why  the  Puritans  are  assembled.  He  introduces  the 
hero  by  name.  He  gives  the  Puritan  version  of  Charles's 
character,  the  reasons  for  disliking  him.  He  enumerates 
the  crimes  attributed  to  him  or  hints  at  them  briefly.  He 
finds  reasons  for  Charles's  weakness  of  character, —  "he 
has  been  taught  by  his  father,"  etc.,  —  so  he  had  evidently 
hunted  up  the  reign  of  James  I  to  find  causes.  This  is 
not  only  teaching  composition,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
inculcating  important  habits  of  mind.  After  all,  of  what 
use  is  it  to  teach  a  child  to  write  a  fair  composition  if  the 
other  habits  of  mind  are  lacking  or  only  survive  in  spite 
of  circumstances  .?  In  planning  his  speech  he  evidently 
conferred  with  "Coke,"  because  the  next  long  and  explan- 
atory speech  is  by  the  bo)-  representing  Coke,  who  realizes 
that  his  opportunity  lies  in  enumerating  in  greater  detail 
the  faults  of  Charles.  "  Cromwell"  realized  that  he  might 
properly  be  brief  and  leave  detail  to  "Coke."  Here  was 
forethought.  And  here  were  two  schoolboys  aualy^^ing 
history  and  men  !  Is  it  not  worth  a  trial,  this  method 
which  has  such  results  to  show } 

After  all,  it  did  not  need  much  resourcefulness,  self- 
reliance,  or  initiative  to  reproduce  a  story  which  had  been 
read  aloud  to  the  class  twice,  or  to  write  a  page  of  "  com- 
position "  on  a  given  subject,  particularly  when  actual 
"  headings  "  of  the  various  sections  of  it  were  written  on 
the  blackboard  for  compulsory  use  !    I   have  read   many 


74   THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

pathetic  attempts  of  young  pupils  to  oblige  the  autocrat 
who  dictated  these  "headings,"  and  I  have  heard  of  one 
poor  little  boy  who  tried  to  write  an  essay  on  the  "  cat," 
using  "  orange  "  headings,  with  disastrous  results  ;  for  he 
wrote  :  "  The  skin  of  the  cat  is  its  fur  "  (that  was  under 
the  heading  ''  skin  ").  "Its  flesh  is  the  pulp.  Its  seeds  I 
do  not  know."  I  do  not  think  I  ever  found  the  children 
of  my  school  writing  about  something  they  did  not  under- 
stand, because  a  child  generally  knows  a  great  deal  about 
what  he  "plays"  ;  and  also  because  the  pupils  had  formed 
a  habit  of  freely  discussing  and  "  threshing  out "  difficul- 
ties with  the  community,  in  the  act  of  doing  which  they 
deepened  the  impressions  made  on  their  brains,  making 
remembrance  more  easy. 

It  may  have  already  occurred  to  the  reader  that  one 
effect  of  the  play  —  more  particularly  the  original  play  — 
on  the  children  would  necessarily  be  a  great  improvement 
in  their  speech  and  diction.  They  naturally  learned  to 
speak  freely,  to  enunciate  clearly,  and  to  avoid  mumbling 
or  chattering.  They  learned  to  choose  their  phrases  care- 
fully and  to  clothe  their  thoughts  in  appropriate  words. 
To  give  an  instance  of  what  I  mean  :  one  little  girl  was 
telling  me  that  she  had  planted  some  seeds.  She  said,  "  I 
planted  them  in  some  dirt  in  a  box."  Another  small  child 
immediately  said,  "Don't  say  'dirt,'  say  'mold'  or  'earth.'" 
Young  as  she  was,  she  had  learned  to  differentiate  be- 
tween the  polite  term  and  the  reverse.  On  another  oc- 
casion, while  on  a  nature  ramble  with  the  older  pupils, 
I  was  picking    my   way  over  a  very  rough  road  full  of 


THE  ORIGINAL  PLAY  75 

old  wagon  ruts  which  had  cut  deeply  into  the  soil.  We 
were  walking  single  file  to  avoid  the  mud.  I  turned  to 
the  girl  immediately  behind  me  and  said:  ''This  is  a 
horrid  road."  "  'Alas  !  my  journey,  rugged  and  uneven,'  " 
quoted  she. 

It  was  a  great  help  to  the  children,  in  learning  to  speak 
correctly,  to  be  allowed  to  use  appropriate  and  natural  ges- 
ture, as  was  possible  while  acting  a  part.  One  remembers 
the  "actions"  taught  in  lessons  set  apart  for  "recitation" 
and  "action  songs."  How  little  they  expressed  what  the 
child  himself  felt !  And  how  impossible  it  was  to  show  any 
real  "expression"  or  feeling  when  reciting  with  the  hands 
held  rigidly  behind  the  back  ! 

It  is  true  that  the  chorus  of  pupils  who  had  no  speak- 
ing parts  had  to  sit  at  their  desks  during  the  performance 
of  plays,  but  a  great  measure  of  the  success  of  a  play  de- 
pended on  them.  Even  they  had  no  set  form  of  words  dic- 
tated to  them.  They  were  told  to  find  words  for  themselves, 
and  not  a  little  of  the  work  fell  on  them.  It  is  not  possi- 
ble or  necessary  to  act  the  whole  of  any  reign  when  playing 
history.  The  pupils  ingeniously  worked  into  their  speeches 
as  much  explanation  as  could  be  included  without  being 
tedious.  The  rest  they  left  to  the  chorus,  who  were  con- 
stantly on  the  watch  to  "put  in  their  oar"  when  some 
gap  needed  filling.  For  instance,  in  the  play  "  Charles  I  " 
they  always  explained  why  the  wife  and  two  elder  sons  of 
Charles  were  not  near  him  at  his  trial.  Directly  after  the 
first  scene,  and  while  the  next  was  being  prepared,  they 
would  depute  one  of  their  number  to  be  spokesman,  who 


^6      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

would  say  :  "His  wife  has  gone  to  the  continent  to  try  to 
raise  an  army,"  or  other  words  to  that  effect. 

A  glance  round  the  school  when  a  "play"  was  in  prog- 
ress would  soon  show  that  all  the  children  there  were 
equally  animated,  eager,  and  interested,  simply  because 
we  were  using  for  educational  purposes  one  of  the  strong- 
est instincts  of  childhood,  I  might  almost  say  of  human 
nature,  —  we  were  harnessing  another  Niagara  Falls. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE   SHAKESPEAREAN    PLAY 

IT  was  only  to  be  expected  that,  as  soon  as  the  pupils 
of  the  school  had  tried  to  write  their  own  historical 
plays  (and  hence  knew  the  points  of  a  good  play),  they 
should  soon  be  on  the  watch  for  good  ready-made  plays 
illustrating  the  periods  they  happened  to  be  studying. 
Naturally  they  found  these  in  the  works  of  Shakespeare, 
and  thus,  as  with  poetry,  songs,  and  music,  they  "dis- 
covered" Shakespeare's  works  for  themselves.  It  was 
not  a  case  of  the  teacher  telling  the  children  to  read  so- 
and-so  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  the  children  who  drew 
the  teacher's  attention  to  the  fact  that,  in  the  volume  of 
Shakespeare  which  they  kept  on  their  library  shelf,  there 
were  good  plays  which  they  could  act.  It  was  the  pupils 
themselves,  too,  by  the  way,  who  subscribed  their  pennies 
and  bought  a  well-illustrated  edition  of  Shakespeare's 
works,  which  soon  came  to  be  one  of  the  most  used 
books  in  their  library. 

Of  course,  just  at  first  they  found  the  complete  plays 
too  lengthy  for  their  purpose  and  the  wording  too  difficult. 
Then,  once  more,  their  ingenuity  came  to  their  aid  and 
they  discovered  how  to  abridge  and  adapt  Shakespeare  to 
their  own  use.    They  began  with  "  Henry  V." 

77 


78       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OE  TEACHING 

Their  opening  scene  showed  Henry  as  the  hot-headed 
young  prince,  with  his  boon  companions,  bragging  of  the 
way  he  had  defied  Judge  Gascoigne.  His  companions 
encouraged  him,  and  he,  in  turn,  promised  them  great 
honors  when  he  should  become  king.  Suddenly  a  mes- 
senger appears  and  tells  him  of  the  death  of  the  king. 
He  waves  off  his  companions,  saying,  ''Away  with  you 
all!  I  have  no  more  to  do  with  you."  The  boys  liked  the 
first  scene  tremendously.  They  quite  understood  the  spirit 
of  the  thing  and  introduced  a  bit  of  swordplay  and  a  quar- 
rel, to  which  young  "Prince  Hal"  put  an  end  by  striking 
up  the  swords  of  the  combatants. 

After  this  they  followed  the  plan  of  Shakespeare's 
"  Henry  V,"  made  the  second  scene  of  that  play  their  first 
scene,  and  abridged  the  "  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  " 
speeches  sufficiently  to  allow  an  explanation  of  Henry's 
claim  to  the  French  throne  and  his  views  on  the  Salic  law. 
It  was  certainly  interesting  to  watch  how  cleverly  they  got 
over  the  difficulty  of  knowing  nothing  of  the  French  lan- 
guage. They  made  the  messenger  from  the  dauphin  speak 
broken  English  !  The  incident  of  the  present  of  tennis 
balls  was  included,  and  "  Henry  "  was  quite  fine  in  his 
denunciation  of  the  insult  and  in  his  determination  to 
send  the  tennis  balls  back  as  "  cannon  balls." 

The  chorus  in  this  play  next  recited  from  memory  the 
passage  from  the  play  beginning 

Now  all  the  youth  of  England  are  on  fire, 
And  silken  dalliance  in  the  wardrobe  lies, 


79 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAX  PLAV  8l 

while  the  king  and  others  donned  all  the  gorgeous  armor 
they  could  muster.  This  in  most  cases  consisted  of  string 
"chain  mail"  and  silver  tea  paper.  "  Henry  V"  himself 
wore  a  shirt  of  fine  mail  consisting  of  a  lady's  silk  vest ! 
Over  the  headpieces  of  chain  mail  they  wore  helmets,  and 
the  principals  rode  "steeds."  They  were  generally  dressed 
before  the  chorus  had  finished  reciting,  and  would  then 
ride  past  the  school  window,  shaking  their  "lances"  to 
show  they  were  off  to  Southampton  !  Xext  they  fitted  in 
a  little  scene  showing  Southampton,  the  guilty  Lords 
Scroop,  Cambridge,  and  Grey,  and  their  punishment  by 
Henry.  Mere  writing  cannot  make  my  readers  realize 
how  well  these  little  rural  boys  "lived"  the  parts.  The 
dignity  and  restraint  of  "  Henry  "  as  he  led  up  to  the 
charge  and  sentence  ;  the  guilty  starts  and  shamed  de- 
meanor of  the  culprits  ;  the  correct  bearing  of  "  Exeter  " 
as  he  said,  "I  arrest  thee,"  etc.;  the  way  in  which  the 
last-arrested  conspirator  broke  his  sword  before  delivering 
it  up,  were  all  realistic  in  the  extreme,  and  certainly  had 
their  share  in  improving  the  tone  and  bearing  of  the  boys. 
It  was  in  this  play  that  we  instituted  the  rule  that  when, 
in  a  battle  scene,  the  bell  was  rung,  every  one  should  stand 
quite  still  in  a  sort  of  tableau.  This  was  to  guard  against 
accidents.  I  could  stop  the  "fight"  at  will.  The  scene 
showing  the  siege  of  Harfleur  was  w'orked  in  this  way : 
the  walls  were  represented  by  chairs  placed  along  the  side 
of  "stage"  space.  When  "  Henry"  desired  the  moment 
of  victory  to  arrive,  he  jumped  upon  one  of  the  chairs, 
crying,  ' '  To  the  breach  !    To  the  breach  !  "    I  would  then 


82       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

sound  the  bell  and  every  one  struck  an  attitude  just  where 
he  was  —  some  ''dead,"  some  engaging  in  combat.  The 
scenes  in  both  camps  before  the  battle  of  Agincourt  were 
well  adapted.  The  girls  always  pulled  down  the  blinds  to 
show  that  it  was  night ;  the  chorus  described  the  place, 
time,  geographical  position,  numbers  on  each  side  ;  and 
''  Henry"  recited  the  speech  which  answers  "Westmore- 
land" when  he  wished  for  "one  ten  thousand  of  the  men 
of  England  who  do  no  work  to-day." 

Of  course  they  had  a  beautiful  tableau  for  the  finish  of 
Agincourt,  with  both  French  and  English  leaders  included. 
The  boys  suggested  a  voyage  liome  with  French  prisoners, 
and  cube-sugar  boxes  rigged  as  boats  were  brought  into 
requisition.  All  the  chorus  stood  on  the  seats  for  a  good 
view  of  the  procession  through  London,  and  so  real  was 
it  to  them  that  I  have  heard  little  girls  whisper  excitedly, 
''Here  they  come !  Here  they  come !  "  and  almost  fall 
off  the  seats  craning  their  necks  and  waving  their  hand- 
kerchiefs. It  was  easy  to  distinguish  who  were  prisoners 
and  who  were  victors.  The  former  hung  their  heads  and 
dragged  their  feet,  while  the  latter  held  their  heads  erect 
and  looked  triumphant. 

The  "cfo\vd"  of  soldiers,  etc.  in  this  play  were  not 
drilled  or  trained  to  their  parts  in  the  orthodox  way.  In 
fact,  they  never  acted  the  play  twice  alike,  but  just  ex- 
pressed themselves  as  they  felt  at  the  moment.  Hence 
the  play  always  went  with  a  swing  —  spontaneously  and 
never  mechanically.  No  true  educational  expert  will  need 
to  be  told  that  this  self-expression  is  the  very  thing  we 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PLAY  83 

need  most  to  aim  at  in  order  properly  to  exercise  and  train 
the  children's  faculties  and  get  the  best  results. 

That  the  children  zvere  set  thinking  for  themselves 
by  means  of  playing  their  own  version  of  Shakespeare's 
"Henry  V  "  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  on  the  next  ''Un- 
seen Reader  "  morning,  following  the  first  performance  of 
"Henry  V,"  there  was  a  great  rush  for  historical  works 
of  all  kinds,  and  very  shortly  we  heard  such  remarks  as 
"  Why,  it  was  my  son,  Henry  VI,  who  caused  Joan  of  Arc's 
death  !  "  (from  the  boy  who  had  impersonated  Henry  V). 
"Yes,  and  when  Jack  died  ("Jack  "  was  Henry  V  for  the 
nonce!)  Katharine  married  Owen  Tudor,  and  that 's  where 
the  Tudor  line  came  from,"  said  another.  "How  do  you 
know  that }  "  said  I.  "I  traced  it  on  this  table,"  was  the 
reply.  I  looked  at  the  book  shown  me.  It  was  opened 
at  a  genealogical  table  !  Fancy  that  studied  voluntarily  by 
an  ordinary  boy ! 

Then  a  quiet,  reserved  boy —  Ernest,  otherwise  Earl  of 
Exeter  —  woke  up  from  a  brown  study  to  say,  "  I  have 
found  a  fine  piece  of  poetry  all  about  it."  His  book  was 
"Ballads  of  English  History,"  and  he  looked  as  though 
he  were  really  and  thoroughly  delighted.  What  a  great 
improvement  on  the  highly  colored  and  sensational  litera- 
ture which  is  devoured  by  young  lads  so  constantly !  I 
quote  this  incident  to  illustrate  that  the  dramatic  method 
of  teaching  shows,  or  rather  leads  to,  the  right  way  of 
using  the  textbook  as  a  book  of  reference,  voluntarily 
approached,  rather  than  a  book  the  contents  of  which 
have  to  be  committed  to  memory  in  stated  doses. 


84       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

And  if  any  one  should  wonder  whether  the  pupils  were 
really  able  to  pursue  any  original  investigations  of  their 
own  from  this  pla\',  I  may  mention  that  they  found  out 
without  my  telling  them  that  Henry  \^  claimed  the  crown 
of  France  from  his  ancestor,  Edw^ard  III,  and  learned 
about  the  Salic  law.  They  themselves  suggested  that 
Henry  VI  inherited  his  weakness  of  character  from  his 
maternal  grandfather,  the  French  king  whom  Shakespeare 
painted  as  almost  imbecile. 

As  time  went  on  the  children  became  more  ambitious. 
They  naturally  desired  to  dive  deeper  into  the  works  of  a 
dramatist  who  could  provide  them  with  such  keen  enjoy- 
ment in  playing  the  life  of  Henry  V.  And  this  is  not  the 
least  significant  part  of  the  work.  "We  needs  must  love 
the  highest  ivhen  we  sec  it^  We  do  not  need  to  be  told 
that  each  one  must  find  and  see  the  highest  for  himself. 
How  many  a  poor  elementary-school  child  is  doomed  never 
to  see  it !  If  he  leaves  school  without  having  had  a  glimpse 
of  it,  however  shadowy  and  distant,  the  chances  are  that 
he  will  never  see  it.  His  may  be  a  life  of  toil,  and  his 
short  leisure  hours  may  be  filled  by  the  sensational  "  rec- 
reation "  of  the  trick  bicycle  rider  and  other  attractions 
of  the  varietv  theater  —  good  or  harmless  in  themselves 
perhaps,  but  not  sufficient  to  take  the  place  of  the  pure 
pleasure  and  elevating  benefit  to  be  derived  from  real 
enjoyment  of  good  literature.  If  we  can  give  the  child  a 
taste  for  good  literature  wdiile  still  a  pupil  in  the  elementary 
school,  w^e  shall  have  opened  the  door  by  which  he  can,  if 
he  will,  attain  the  highest.    With  a  literature  such  as  ours 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PLAY  85 

it  is  surely  our  duty  to  use  such  methods  as  will  bring 
about  this  result. 

And,  I  ask  you,  will  a  child  who  has  once  lived  for  a 
time  in  the  romantic  Forest  of  Arden  with  Touchstone, 
Rosalind,  and  Orlando  ever  need  to  be  shown  in  what 
volume  he  may  find  a  way  of  escape  from  a  sordid  world 
of  toil  and  worldly  gain  ?  If  he  has  ever  taken  a  part  in 
playing  the  delightful  "A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream," 
will  he  need  to  be  at  a  loss  where  to  find  an  evening's 
recreation  ?  If  you  have  ever  found  delight  or  profit  or 
improvement  in  Shakespeare's  pages,  you  will  know  ex- 
actly how,  by  association  of  ideas,  his  plays  haunt  one's 
happiest  hours. 

The  w^orkingman  need  not  necessarily  —  because  he  is 
a  workingman  —  blow  hideous  noises  and  rude  songs  on  a 
cornet,  and  generally  make  an  exhibition  of  himself  while 
on  his  annual  "  outing."  1  do  not  think  it  is  too  extrava- 
gant a  dream  to  hope  that  one  might  see  such  things  rele- 
gated to  the  limbo  of  the  past.  I  know  young  enlightened 
workingmen  who  know  their  English  literature  w^ell ;  who 
prefer  to  spend  all  their  leisure  time  on  their  bicycles, 
touring  this  country  of  ours  ;  who  see  romance  in  the 
storied  monuments  of  the  past ;  who  are  not  bored  by  an 
evening  in  the  country  alone  or  wdth  a  kindred  spirit ;  who 
have  the  true  artist's  feeling  for  color  in  beautiful  land- 
scapes ;  who  do  not  merely  regard  a  patch  of  bright  yel- 
low mustard  as  so  much  food  for  sheep,  but  as  a  touch  of 
color  and  contrast  in  the  landscape  ;  who  know  the  names, 
abodes,  and  habits  of  all  the  flowers — rare  or  common  — 


S6      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

of  their  countryside  ;  who  know  all  the  wonders  and  all 
the  romance  of  the  traces  of  our  ancestors  to  be  found  in 
historic  sections  !  And  that,  not  merely  from  folk  legend 
and  ignorance,  but  from  the  folk  legend  plus  an  intelligent 
store  of  knowledge  obtained  by  reading  and  reasoning. 
Surely  there  is  ground  for  encouragement  when  education 
of  the  right  sort  can  turn  out  a  workingman  of  this  type. 
He  will  not  be  a  less  skillful  or  industrious  worker  because 
he  is  well  read.  A  refined  and  intellectual  workingman 
is  often  looked  upon  as  a  rarity  and  even  with  suspicion. 
I  have  hopes  that  the  exact  opposite  may  in  time  be  true, 
and  that  it  will  be  the  man  who  works  only  that  he  may 
have  money  to  spend  on  sensational  enjoyments  w^hom  we 
shall  call  extraordinar)^  I  have  seen  in  my  own  village 
workingmen — including  farm  and  garden  laborers  —  who 
could  not  only  sit  through  an  evening  of  Shakespearean 
plays  as  spectators  with  intelligent  enjoyment,  but  who 
could  and  did  themselves  give  a  splendid  rendering  of 
''Julius  Caesar." 

That  the  pupils  appreciated  Shakespeare  out  of  school 
hours  was  clear,  for  fourteen  of  them  chose  volumes  of  his 
plays  for  their  school  prizes.  They  further  took  the  trouble 
to  specify  which  plays  they  wanted  included,  and  the  fa- 
vorites seemed  to  be  "A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  "As 
You  Like  It,"  "The  Merchant  of  Venice,"  "King  John," 
"  Henry  V,"  "Julius  Caesar,"  and  "Henry  VI."  These  they 
afterwards  carried  backward  and  forward  between  home 
and  school,  and  made  themselves  well  acquainted  with  the 
contents  in  the  same  way  that  they  studied  "  Henry  V." 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PLAY  8/ 

The  girls,  in  particular,  enjoyed  the  romantic  plays  of 
Shakespeare,  while  the  boys  preferred  the  more  busding 
historical  plays.  Their  rendering  of  the  scene  between 
Hubert  and  Arthur  in  ''  King  John  "  was  quite  different 
from  any  I  have  ever  seen  given  by  schoolboys.  If  any 
person  should  like  an  experience  similar  to  mine,  let  him 
set  a  few  boys  to  prepare  and  act  this  scene  as  they  im- 
agine it  really  took  place,  first  reading  the  play  carefully. 
I  always  see  the  boys  in  my  mind's  eye  when  I  read  the 
words  of  the  play.  The  two  attendants  draped  themselves 
in  window  curtains  (which  looked  Hke  ''villains'  cloaks") 
and  wore  black  paper  masks  —  pieces  of  paper,  with  holes 
cut  for  eyes,  tied  round  their  heads.  They  carried  a  pail 
of  coals  such  as  road  repairers  use  at  night,  and  had  two 
pieces  of  sharp  iron  stuck  therein.  The  hot  coals  and  red- 
hot  irons  were  simulated  with  red  chalk  !  The  boy  who 
impersonated  Hubert  was,  I  feel  sure,  a  born  artist.  In- 
stead of  reciting  his  lines  as  if  he  were  reading  them  word 
for  word,  he  "thought"  them,  and  showed  his  thoughts 
in  gesture  and  facial  expression.  The  result  was  that  all 
his  young  audience  understood  the  struggle  going  on  in 
''  Hubert's  "  mind  and  were  consequently  interested,  as 
children  will  be  by  anything  which  bears  the  stamp  of  truth 
—  is  ''really  true."  The  young  "Arthur"  of  the  piece, 
taking  his  cue  from  "  Hubert,"  showed  how  the  real  Arthur 
must  have  gained  and  followed  up  the  advantages  of  his 
eloquent  and  touching  appeals — so  much  so  that  the  audi- 
ence was  carried  away.  The  same  was  true  of  the  two 
attendants,  one  of  whom  really  meant  what  he  said  when 


88       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

he  ejaculated,  "  I  am  best  pleased  to  be  from  such  a  deed." 
The  charm  of  the  children's  presentation  of  these  plays  of 
Shakespeare  lay  in  their  original  treatment  and  interpre- 
tation of  them,  their  novel  "properties"  and  gestures. 

This  brings  me  to  mention  another  point  —  the  fact 
that  naturally  the  plays  in  school  brought  forth  an  accom- 
panying handicraft  ■d.x\d.  art  of  their  own.  Following  the 
earlier  plays,  I  frequently  found  the  older  bo\s  drawing 
in  their  books  the  scenes  which  the\-  had  enacted,  and  this 
led  to  my  giving  them  time  and  opportunity  to  depict 
what  they  saw  or  imagined  while  acting  or  looking  on. 
Hie  curious  part  of  the  resulting  drawings  was  the  fact 
that  they  showed  costume  and  scenery  as  it  ought  to  be, 
and  not  as  seen  in  the  make-believe  plays.  For  instance, 
in  the  tournament  scene  taken  from  "  Ivanhoe,"  the  boy 
who  drew  the  picture  had  most  correctly  imagined  the  lists 
of  Ashby  de  la  Zouch,  because,  to  him,  the  school  desks  and 
cupboards  had  not  existed  in  the  play.  He  had  drawn  heroes 
in  armor  instead  of  his  small  schoolmates  in  corduroy. 

In  addition  to  drawing,  both  boys  and  girls  took  a  great 
interest  in  making  the  various  articles  needed  in  their 
plays,  and  I  fancy  this  brought  forth  their  ingenuity  more, 
and  had  a  greater  educational  value,  than  formal  lessons  in 
handicrafts  —  that  is,  for  elementary-school  children.  It 
set  them  experimenting  at  any  rate,  and  thus  they  found 
out  their  own  weakness  of  method  and  ignorance  of  tech- 
nique. It  seemed,  indeed,  as  if  dramatizing  lessons  touched 
some  human  interest  which  must  express  itself  in  every 
possible  form  of  art. 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PLAY  9I 

Another  point  which  was  brought  out  more  particularly 
in  connection  with  the  Shakespearean  plays,  in  which  the 
children  spoke  the  lines  verbatim,  was  the  habit  of  the 
small  children  of  the  chorus  in  arming  themselves  with 
copies  of  the  play  in  progress,  and  constituting  them- 
selves "  prompters."  I  have  seen  as  many  as  fourteen 
books  being  closely  scanned  by  twice  as  many  heads  of 
little  grade  children,  and  I  have  then  thought,  "  What  a 
splendidly  attentive  reading  class  !  "  What  is  more,  I  am 
sure  they  were  all  attentive,  because,  did  the  performers 
miss  one  single  word,  every  child  who  had  a  book  would 
supply  the  needed  correction  at  once. 

One  of  the  most  suitable  and  successful  Shakespear- 
ean scenes  for  the  boys  was  "  King  Henry  VI,"  Part  II, 
Act  IV,  scene  ii.  The  boys  also  attempted  scenes  iii  and 
iv,  and  scene  x.  Having  thus  exemplified  the  rebellion  of 
Jack  Cade,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  read  the  con- 
text around  it,  and  then  dovetail  what  they  had  learned 
with  what  they  had  played  of  ''  King  Henry  V."  In  this 
way  the  Shakespearean  play  was  not  only  valuable  as  a 
lesson  in  literature,  but  it  correlated  many  useful  branches 
of  knowledge. 

The  boys  liked  this  play  so  well  that  they  modeled  and 
played  Wat  Tyler's  rebellion  on  similar  lines.  They  com- 
menced their  play  by  causing  two  gentlemen  to  meet  and 
discuss  the  rising  in  France. 


92       THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Scene  I 

First  Gentleman  (Squire  Balderdash  !)  I  have  just 
heard,  by  a  mounted  messenger  from  Dover,  that  the 
EngUsh  peasants  are  rising  too,  and  are  discontented 
with  the  taxes  they  have  to  pay. 

Second  Gentleman.  The  king  must  be  informed  of  this. 

First  Gentleman.  But  the  king  will  not  listen.  He 
is  young  and  hot-headed  ;  besides,  money  must  be  raised 
to  pay  for  the  war  with  France.  The  peasants  are  headed 
by  a  man  named  Walter  Tyler,  of  Essex,  and  they  are 
marching  to  Eondon.  [Xoisr  of  Rabble  /lain/  approach- 
ing. A  Crowd  gathers  round  a  Man,  luho  bigins  to  address 

then  I  wit  J  I 

'■  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Who  was  then  the  gentleman?'"] 

Seconio  Gentleman.  Come!  I  to  the  King — you  to 
the  lord  mayor !  Something  must  be  done  to  prepare 
Eondon.  [Exeunt  both  qjiiekly] 

The  Preacher  (John  Ball).  Brethren,  I  have  come  to 
explain  to  you  the  question  of  these  illegal  taxes.  How  can 
you  pay  them  without  money  }  {A  Voiee.  We  wants  better 
wages.)  Why  should  you  poor  people  be  oppressed,  because 
money  is  needed  to  pay  for  wars  .?  {Another  Voiee.  Those 
who  make  wars  should  pay  for  'em  —  we  wants  trade  im- 
proved. We  wants  permission  to  buy  and  sell  in  the  mar- 
kets !)  And  if  you  are  bound  to  pay  taxes,  why  should  n't 
you  be  free  men  and  no  longer  serfs  t  {A  Voiee.  Yes,  that 's 
it !   We  wants  land  to  till ;  land  at  fourpence  an  acre.) 


THE  SIIAKESPEAKEAN  PLAY  93 

Scene  II.    Dartford,  Kent 

Men  found  ivofking  with  hoes  in  the  field.  A  realistie 
blaeksniith' s  shop  is  arranged  zvith  a  desk  anvil  at  one 
end.  The  clanging  of  the  sledge  hammers  is  simulated 
by  striking  an  ordinary  hammer  on  an  old  garden  fork 
laid  on  the  anvil.  One  corner  is  set  apart  for  Wat 
Tyler's  house,  in  zvhich  his  Daughter  sits  ivorking. 
A  bell  is  heard  ringing  a7td  two  Collectors  appear,  call- 
ifig  out,  "  Oyez  !  Oyez  !  "  TJiey  go  to  each  of  the  Men 
to  collect  the  poll  tax,  and  carry  a  book  in  which  they 
have  entered  the  names  of  all  persons  above  the  age 
of  fifteen  yea7's.  I  hey  demand  three  groats  from  every 
one  of  these.  The  Men  all  murmur  and  refer  the  Col- 
lectors to  Wat  Tyler,  tJicir  champion.  They  call  at 
the  house  of  Tyler,  who  declares  he  has  no  one  above 
the  age  for  payme7it.  His  Daughter  appears  and  one 
of  the  Collectors,  jeering,  says,  ' '  You  have  one,  for  she 
is  over  fifteen."  Wat  Tyler,  enraged,  strikes  him  with 
his  smith's  hammer.  He  falls  dead.  The  ^^///r/' Collector 
escapes.  The  Men  rally  round  Tyler  and  tJirow  the 
body  down  a  well  (this  is  a  brisk  piece  of  acting),  and 
with  mucJi  sJiouting  detcrmijie  to  march  to  F.ondon. 
They  decide  on  the  terms  they  mean  to  demand :  slav- 
ery abolished ;  no  tolls  and  taxes  on  trade  ;  land  at 
fourpence per  acre  ;  better  Jiousifig ;  no  illegal  taxation. 

Feeling  that  the  schoolroom  space  was  all  too  cramped 
for  a  march  to  freedom,  the  boys  elected  to  march  round 


94       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

the  playground  between  the  scenes  and  arrive  in  London 
in  style.  This  they  used  to  do,  and  frequently  they  intro- 
duced funny  little  interludes,  as,  for  instance,  meeting 
with  a  lawyer. 

Wat  Tyler.    Ho,  there!  Stand!  Who  are  you,  sirrah.? 

Lawyer.    I  am  a  lawyer. 

Tyler.    Can  you  write  ? 

Lawyer.    Indeed,  I  can  write  a  court  hand. 

Mob.  He  has  been  writing  these  heavy  taxes  on  the 
poor.  Away  with  him  !  [He  is  dragged  off,  aiul  aiiotJicr 
Man  cntcrs\ 

Tyler.  Come,  sirrah,  join  our  ranks.  We  march  to 
freedom. 

Max.  I  am  sorry,  sir,  1  am  not  fit  for  so  grand  an 
armv  ;  besides,  my  wife  and  family  need  me  at  home. 

Tyler.    Can  you  read  or  write  1 

Man.    No,  sir,  and  I  am  sorry  for  it. 

Tyler.  Do  not  be  sorr\^  You  are  just  the  man  for  us. 
Fall  in  with  us.  yHic  Man  is  pushed  into  a  plaec  and 
they  march  on'\ 

Scene  HI 

Arrival  in  London.  The  seejie  opens  after  the  taking  of 
London  Bridge.  Wat  Tyler  Jiolds  a  eonversation 
zuith  his  Chief  Officer.  {Notice  hei^e  how  ingeniously 
the  yoking  playzvrights  make  the  characters  tell  the 
story  in  the  natural  course  of  the  play.  They  have,  no 
doidd,  eaugJit  that  ujiaivares from  SJiakespeare  s plays) 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PLAY  95 

Wat  Tvler.  Well,  what  news  ?  Did  you  burn  the  old 
Duke  of  Lancaster's  palace,  the  Savoy  ? 

Officer.  Ay,  marry,  that  did  we  ;  and  right  well  he 
deserved  it,  spending  the  good  money  and  coming  home 
from  France  without  accomplishing  anything,  but  losing 
everything.    We  have  lost  all  save  Calais  ! 

Wat  Tyler.  Yes,  indeed  !  Well,  I  have  set  fire  to  the 
King's  prison  —  the  Marshalsea  —  and  set  free  the  pris- 
oners. My  good  boys  of  Kent  have  killed  every  Fleming 
they  could  find,  whether  in  church,  house,  or  hospital. 
None  have  escaped.  Now  whom  shall  we  send  as  mes- 
sengers to  the  King.? 

Officer.  We  have  here  a  schoolmaster  who  hath 
repented  him  of  his  learning.    Shall  we  send  him  ? 

Wat  Tyler.  Bring  him  to  me.  Now,  sirrah,  hearken. 
You  are  to  go  to  the  King  in  the  Tower  and  say,  "Your 
Majesty,  Wat  Tyler  hath  business  with  ye,  and  requires 
to  see  ye  !  "  Mind  your  manners,  as  becometh  a  messenger 
from  a  great  man. 

[Schoolmaster  dows  low  and  departs.  At  the  extreme 
end  of  sehoolroom  he  enters  the  Tower  gates  {a  gap 
between  two  desks)  and  is  stopped  by  two  Warders  a?id 
asked  his  bnsi/iess.  He  makes  low  bows  and  persuades 
them  to  let  him  enter.  But  he  has  no  sooner  eommenced 
his  message  tJian  tJie young  King  (Richard  II),  looking 
half  amused,  half  angry,  says,  "Who  admitted  this 
man  ?  Be  off,  rough  rebel !  "  The  Messenger  returns 
and  reports  this  to  Wat  Tyler,  wJio  is  enraged  and 
says,  "Go  back  and  tell  him  we  desire  to  speak  with 


96       THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

him  peaceably,  but  if  he  will  not  meet  us  we  shall 
send  him  messages  of  fire  and  plunder  !  " 
\Thc  Messenger  once  more  gets  past  the  Warders,  and, 
on  his  deliveriiig  his  message  with  many  awkward 
boii's,  the  King  eonfej's  with  his  Knights  and  Courtiers. 
They  advise  him  to  seem  to  agree  with  Wat  Tyler 
and  his  Followers,  and  he  promises  to  meet  the  Insur- 
gents on  the  follozving  morning^ 

Scene  I\" 

The  Mob  nnder  Wat  Tyler  arrive  from  the  playground 
to  meet  the  young  King,  wJio,  Jiowever,  merely  eomes 
in  a  barge  {inveiied  beneJi)  dowii  the  Kiver  Thames 
to  speak  witJi  them  from  that  poi)it  of  vantage.  The 
Mob  rusJi  forward  and  attempt  to  reach  the  boat  with 
boat  hooks  {map  poles).  J  here  are  confused  sho?its  of 
"  We  want  no  illegal  taxes  !  "  etc.,  and  Wat  Tyler 
raises  the  cry  of  "Treason !  "  Again  W' at  Tyler  scjids 
a  Messenger,  and  the  ¥^\^g  pivmiscs  to  meet  them  in 
a  field  at  Mile  End] 

Scene  V.    Mile  End 

The  Mob  di'awn  up  under  Wat  Tyler  at  one  end  of 
schoohvom.  The  King  and  his  Followers,  mounted, 
at  the  other.  {'This  gave  an  opportunity  for  ?/sing  the 
Jiorse  brasses,  mentioned  cai'lier  in  tJiis  volume,  on 
the  kings  prancifig  "steed.'') 

King.    S^Riding forwanl\    I  am  your  King  and  Lord, 
good  people,  what  will  you  ? 


97 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PLAY  99 

Wat  Tyler.  Your  Majesty,  we  will  that  you  free  us 
and  our  lands  forever ;  that  you  give  us  leave  to  buy  and 
sell  in  the  market  places  ;  that  land  shall  be  fourpence  an 
acre  ;  and  that  no  illegal  taxes  be  levied. 

Mob.  Yes,  yes  !  We  want  better  houses.  We  will  not 
be  serfs  any  more. 

King.  I  grant  it.  Go  home  quietly  to  your  houses,  and 
I  will  have  the  charter  written  out  and  sealed. 

Mob.    Hurrah  !    Long  live  Richard  II ! 

Wat  Tyler.  Half  of  you  disperse  to  your  homes. 
The  other  twenty  thousand  remain  here  with  me.  Captains, 
see  to  it ! 

Scene  VI.    SmitJifield 

Wat  Tyler,  vionntcd,  talks  in  nndci'toncs  ivitJi  his  Cap- 
tains.   Suddenly  the  Klxg  and  his  Followers  ride  in 

Wat  Tyler.  \Rides  forivard  to  meet  him,  and  takes 
hold  of  his  "Horse's"  hridle'\  You  have  broken  your 
promise  !    Where  is  the  charter  you  swore  to  send  us  } 

William  Walworth  (Mayor  of  London).    [Rides  fo?-- 

luard,  drawing  his  dagger  {the  zvooden  dagger  covered  zvith 

silver  paper  in  eardboard  sheath  vientioned  before  in  this 

book)']  Take  your  hand  from  the  King's  rein,  vile  peasant. 

[Tyler  sti-nggles  to   retain  his  hold  of  the   rein.     The 

"  Horses  " /r^?;/rr  about.    Walworth  strikes  Tyler 

zvith  the  dagger.    He  falls,  groans,   and  dies.    The 

Peasants  rush-  forward] 

Peasants.    They  have  slain  our  leader  !  Kill !  kill ! 


lOO    THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Kixc;.  [Faces  round,  sJioutiiig\  What  need  ye,  my 
masters  ?  I  am  your  Captain  and  your  King !  Follow  me ! 
I  will  be  )our  leader  !  [He  rides  toward  tJie  door^  faeiiig 
about  and  ivaviiig  his  sivord  boldly.  The  Mob  appear  to 
ivaverfor  ail  instant,  tJieii  follow  Jiim,  eJieering^ 

The  boys  always  finished  the  play  by  allowing  "  Richard  " 
to  ride  out  and  around  the  playground,  while  they  marched 
after  him,  cheering. 

I  think  the  reader  will  at  once  see  clearly  how  Shake- 
speare's play  and  his  version  of  Jack  Cade's  rebellion  had 
influenced  the  young  playwrights  in  their  compilation  of 
"Wat  Tyler's  Rebellion."  They  dragged  in  a  "lawyer" 
who  could  write  a  "  court  hand,"  where  Shakespeare  had 
introduced  a  schoolmaster.  They  certainly  had  tried  to 
talk  in  the  correct  style  of  the  times.  For  the  facts  and 
plot  they  read  John  Richard  (jreen's  "  Readings  from 
English  History-  "  and  Froissart's  account  of  the  events. 
The  whole  of  the  preparation  and  arrangement  was  their 
own,  the  bulk  of  the  work  falling  on  "  Wat  Tyler  "  him- 
self, who  also  impersonated  Squire  Balderdash  in  scene  i, 
and  on  his  chief  officer,  who  was  also  John  Ball,  in  the  same 
scene.  The  chorus,  of  course,  informed  us  that  the  young 
king  was  only  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  after  the  play  told 
us  the  results  of  the  rising. 

I  can  assure  the  reader  that,  under  this  most  graphic  kind 
of  teaching,  historical  characters  like  those  of  Richard  II 
and  Wat  Tyler  are  no  longer  vague,  unreal  figures  with 
curious  names,  tiresome  acts,  and  elusive  dates.    Certainly 


THE  shakespeAkp'^AN,  riliAX^' ''v  !  '  •  l^^3 

they  are  real  (and  children  love  the  concrete,  we  know  !), 
and  for  this  reason  it  is  impossible  that  any  pupil  should 
be  dull  or  that  his  brain  should  be  inactive  during  such 
a  lesson. 

The  next  Shakespearean  play  which  they  attempted 
was  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice,"  beginning  with  the  trial 
scene  and  including  also  scene  ii,  Act  IV.  And  here  I 
would  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are  many  dif- 
ficult lines,  especially  for  "  Portia,"  to  be  committed  to 
memory.  These  small  rural  pupils  had  no  difficulty  in 
learning  them  /;/  a  fezv  days,  and  after  that  never  needed 
prompting.  Not  that  they  were  w^hat  is  termed  "  sharp  at 
learning"  ;  they  were  learning  almost  involuntarily,  because 
they  were  "  living  in  the  part  "  as  it  were.  And  that  they 
did  not  shirk  learning  is  proved  by  the  fact  that,  of  his 
own  accord,  "Shylock"  in  the  play  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
act  scene  iii,  Act  I,  in  spite  of  the  great  number  of  lines 
and  awkwardly  turned  phrases  it  contained. 

Their  impersonation  of  the  various  parts,  far  from  being 
calculated  to  draw  a  smile  (which  might  be  expected  when 
young  children  attempted  to  act  complex  characters),  was 
earnest  and  interesting.  "Shylock"  and  "Portia,"  on 
whom  so  much  of  the  success  of  the  play  depended,  real- 
ized their  parts,  and  yet  played  in  an  original  manner,  be- 
cause the  action  and  gesture  were  their  own,  and  w^ere 
neither  taught  by  an  instructor  nor  copied  from  players 
seen  previously.  They  had  merely  the  text  of  Shakespeare 
to  depend  upon.  That  they  read  this  aright  was  proved 
by  the  fact  that  in  such  speeches  as  Shylock's,  commencing 


UQ2^     fT.H'E  .Ei'R  A vM  A T I'C  .METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

''  How  like  a  fawning  publican  he  looks  !  "  the  boy  im- 
personator used  a  venomous  kind  of  undertone ;  and 
when  Bassanio  enters  next  and  Shylock  has  to  say,  "  I 
am  debating  of  my  present  store,"  etc.,  the  boy  changed 
his  tone  at  once  to  a  conciliatory,  cringing  one,  although 
no  such  directions  are  given  in  the  play. 

This  play  had,  of  course,  no  historical  connection  to 
teach,  nor  had  "A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream"  nor  "As 
You  Like  It,"  so  we  treated  them  as  dramatized  literature, 
under  the  general  title  of  "  English." 

The  children's  playing  had  reached  quite  a  finished 
standard  by  the  time  they  attempted  scenes  from  "  A  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream."  Their  best  scenes  proved  to 
be  those  of  Act  V,  which  depict  "rude  mechanics"  in  a 
Greek  play.  The  school  children  seemed  to  grasp,  at  first 
reading,  all  Shakespeare's  subtle  burlesques  and  humors, 
and  were  eager  to  "  dress "  the  piece  properly.  They 
gathered  a  huge  quantity  of  ivy  and  wreathed  the  room, 
making  archways  of  thin  laths  nailed  together  —  here 
the  "natural"  handicraft  once  more  made  itself  evident  — 
and  fastening  ivy  and  boughs  of  greenery  on  to  that 
foundation.  Ingenuity  showed  itself  when  colored  ribbons 
—  "gold"  — were  needed  to  bind  the  stockings  like  san- 
dals. The  girls  actually  painted  white  tape  with  the  yel- 
low water  color  from,  their  painting  palettes.  Wlien  dry, 
this  answered  their  purposes  perfectly.  Afterwards,  when 
they  needed  colored  "  ribbon  "  to  sell  by  the  yard  while 
playing  at  arithmetic,  each  girl  painted  a  piece  of  white 
tape  a  different  color.     They  made  Greek  tunics  from  old 


THE   SHAKESPEAREAN   PLAY 


103 


cotton  skirts,  gathering  up  the  waistband  for  a  neckband, 
and  cutting  a  hole  at  each  side  for  the  arms.  These,  when 
decorated  with  ''  key  pattern "  borders  of  gold  paper 
(ironed  on,  as  described  before)  and  accompanied  by  long 
white  stockings,  bound  like  sandals,  and  "  gold "  tape 
fillets  around  the  head,  gave  quite  a  picturesque  and  Greek 
appearance  to  the  prosaic  schoolroom.  The  girls  who  had 
long  hair  turned  it  up  all  round  to 
add  to  the  effect. 

And  all  this  was  of  their  own  in- 
itiative. Their  "  English  "  lesson 
was  seasoned  with  the  same  fresh 
enthusiasm  as  their  history  lesson 
—  with  how  little  trouble  on  the  part 
of  cither  teacher  or  child  !  Certainly 
it  required  no  more  trouble  or  exer- 
tion in  preparation  than  an  ordinary 
game  ;  yet  at  the  end  what  a  splen- 
did harvest  of  lasting  results  in  the 
wider  outlook,  the  closer  study  of 
humanity,  the  enriched  and  strength- 
ened memory,  the  greater  knowledge  of  the  beauties  of  our 
language  (caught  instinctively  from  contact  with  the  mind 
of  a  past  master  in  the  art  of  appropriate  clothing  of  ex- 
pression) —  and  all  this  lasting  treasure  absorbed  from 
and  through  a  game  in  school !  I  doubt  if  by  any  other 
means  the  children  could  have  learned  to  appreciate  the 
beauties  of  speech  such  as  the  alliteration  contained  in  the 
following  lines  :  ''The  riot  of  the  tipsy  Bacchanals,  tearing 


I04      THE  DRAMATIC   METlIOJJi  OF  TEACHING 

the  Thracian  singer."  ...  "  The  thrice  three  Muses 
mourning  for  the  death  of  learning,"  and  "Whereat,  with 
blade,  with  bloody  blameful  blade,  he  bravely  broach 'd  his 
boiling  bloody  breast."  These  lines,  which  occur  in  "A 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  were  declaimed  in  a  manner 
which  brought  out  all  their  word  painting  ;  and  shortly 
after  the  play  had  been  shown  by  the  children  to  their 
schoolfellows  the  older  pupils  essayed  to  write  some  poetry 
of  their  own,  in  which  we  found  occurring  such  lines  as 
this:  "Sing  a  song  of  sunshine  that  will  suit  this  summer's 
day" — an  example  of  alliteration  which  also  suggested 
summer  breezes.  Again  in  the  same  poem  we  had,  "And 
the  leaves  will  fan  )ou  gentl\'  as  they  rustle  in  the  breeze." 
I  do  not  think  it  a  small  matter  that  children  should  be 
made  to  understand  grace  of  expression  and  a  little  of  the 
way  to  use  their  own  language  —  to  avoid  being  tedious 
through  using  the  same  words  over  and  over  again  from 
a  scanty  vocabulary.  Only  a  very  short  time  ago  a  member 
of  the  London  County  Council  Education  Committee  was 
reported  to  have  said  that  if  a  certain  circular  had  been 
written  in  words  reminiscent  of  the  language  of  Milton,  it 
would  not  have  been  understood  by  the  people  for  whom 
it  was  intended.  Another  member  described  the  circular 
as  "  bad  grammar  and  bad  form."  A  woman  defended  it 
by  stating  that  the  composition  was  partly  her  own,  and 
that  its  style  had  been  adopted  as  "  being  more  likely  to 
interest  the  people."  If  such  conditions  prevail  among 
the  masses,  then  it  is  high  time  that  Shakespeare  and  his 
English  became  "  familiar  in  their  mouths  as  household 


THE   SHAKESPEAREAN    FLAY  IO5 

words."  Surely  the  best  grammar  or  composition  lessons 
must  be  long  drafts  from  the  well  of  pure  English  to  be 
found  in  our  standard  authors.  Somehow  we  have  always 
felt  this  more  or  less  vaguely,  and  have  tried  bringing  our 
horses  to  the  well ;  but  they  did  not  always  drink,  and 
seldom  deeply. 

I  wonder  whether  we  grown-ups  would  ever  have  been 
so  fond  of  Shakespeare's  plays  if  we  had  merely  read 
them,  especially  if  we  had  been  ordered  to  read  them  !  Do 
we  not  remember  how  and  when  our  real,  lively  interest 
was  awakened  .?  In  how  many  cases  was  it  the  illuminat- 
ing acting  and  impressi\e  delivery  of  some  great  Shake- 
spearean actor  that  first  roused  our  interest  ?  i^rhaps 
afterwards  we  read  the  play  over  again  quietly,  and  by 
association  of  ideas  felt  the  same  pleasurable  sensations. 
Perhaps,  also,  it  will  not  be  a  national  waste  of  time  if  our 
masses  learn  to  love  Shakespeare  "  in  the  days  of  their 
youth  "  by  such  means  as  I  have  described  earlier  in  the 
chapter.  It  means  to  the  masses  exacdy  what  it  means  to 
the  few  —  an  enriched  vocabulary,  a  better-stocked  mind, 
a  more  fertile  imagination  ;  for  the  days  when  people 
talked  in  the  language  of  Shakespeare  and  his  compeers, 
and  consequently  thought  in  that  language,  were  the  days 
of  vivid  imagination,  initiative,  and  adventure.  Our  empire 
was  extended  by  discovery  ;  our  trade  was  improved  by 
intelligence  ;  our  inventions  were  made  to  keep  pace  with 
the  demand  for  greater  luxury,  which  was  the  outcome  of 
refinement  of  thought  —  refined,  that  is,  in  comparison 
with  pre- Elizabethan  times. 


I06      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

It  may  seem  a  sweeping  statement,  but  is  it  not  true 
that,  in  spite  of  at  least  more  than  twenty  years  of  com- 
pulsory teaching  of  English,  written  and  oral,  the  average 
youth  confines  himself  to  the  latest  catchword  to  express 
everything  ?  One  feels  that  he  cannot  forgive  an  English- 
speaking  person  for  neglecting  the  beauties  of  his  own 
language  —  a  language  in  which  almost  ever}^  word  tells  a 
history;  in  which  is  written  a  literature  unrivaled  in  the 
world.  And  the  only  way  to  revive  the  use  of  correct  Eng- 
lish is  to  allow  children  in  school  to  speak  and  read  it 
almost  constantly.  My  own  experience  is,  that  allowing 
them  to  act  a  part  saves  them  from  feeling  conscious  of 
speaking  or  reading  as  a  lesson,  and  causes  them  to  use 
the  words  with  a  sense  of  their  aesthetic  beauty. 

My  pupils  involuntarily  bore  me  out  in  this  opinion,  for 
they  asked  whether  they  might  read  a  play,  and,  taking 
the  various  parts,  chose  for  their  first  effort  "As  You 
Like  It."  They  liked  it  so  well  that  for  quite  a  number  of 
weeks  it  was  always  asked  for  on  Friday  afternoons,  which 
afternoon  we  always  set  apart  for  sports  or  any  subject 
that  seemed  to  please  the  largest  number.  The  Celia  and 
Rosalind  of  the  play  were  good  friends,  and,  as  most  of 
the  actors  had  their  own  copies  of  the  piece,  it  was  evi- 
dent that  these  two  studied  their  parts  together  at  home 
during  the  evenings.  They  all  soon  became  quite  expert  at 
reading  and  acting  at  the  same  time,  and  I  feel  sure  that 
this  improved  their  reading  immensely.  We  seldom  heard 
a  word  mispronounced.  On  the  contrary,  we  heard  great 
improvement  in  tone  of  voice,  inflection,  and  modulation. 


THE   SHAKESPEAREAN    PLAY  I07 

It  may  seem  incredible,  but  I  am  certain  that  even  the 
younger  pupils  thoroughly  enjoyed  and  appreciated  the 
play  when  they  saw  it  acted  by  their  schoolfellows.  Of 
course  the  actors  put  their  own  original  little  stamps  upon 
it.  Once  more  they  improvised  costumes,  using  their 
fingers  with  much  ingenuity.  '' Audrey  "  was  attired  in 
an  old  ragged  "  window-curtain  "  skirt,  with  her  brother's 
boots,  many  sizes  too  big,  until  on  one  joyful  day  a  small 
boy  proudly  marched  into  school  bearing  a  pair  of  real 
wooden  shoes,  in  which  "  Audrey  "  clumped  about  to  her 
heart's  content.  "  Orlando,"  not  to  be  behindhand,  used 
to  hang  his  verses  on  the  school  palm,  which  was  always 
placed  in  the  center  of  the  "stage "  to  represent  the  Forest 
of  Arden.  ''  Touchstone  "  wore  a  red  flannel  cap  and  bells, 
homemade  of  course,  and  "  Corin  "  had  a  real  shepherd's 
crook,  borrowed  from  his  father. 

By  this  time  the  reader  will  have  realized  that  I  did  not 
attempt  to  teach  stagecraft,  but  that  my  aim  was  rather  to 
put  this  in  the  background  ;  yet  our  child  "  Rosalind,"  our 
'Xelia,"  and  our  ''Puck"  were  so  exceedingly  good,  dra- 
matic, and  convincing  in  their  parts  that  their  performance 
really  approached  pure  art.  A  great  Shakespearean  actor 
and  actress  who  saw  them  waxed  quite  enthusiastic  over 
their  natural  way  of  conducting  themselves,  and  compared 
it  with  the  "trained  trickery"  of  many  actors  who  are 
taught  to  "raise  the  hand  here,  walk  so  many  strides  there, 
lower  the  voice  so,  speak  more  slowly,"  and  so  forth. 

After  all,  "  all  the  world  's  a  stage."  What  were  all  our 
heroes  of  history  but  men   who  held  the  center  of  the 


I08      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

world's  stage  for  a  time,  and  so  acted  their  daily  parts  that 
they  made  a  success  of  their  play  ?  What  is  our  own  every- 
day demeanor  but  the  part  which  we  play  to  express  our- 
selves, or  the  reverse,  according  as  our  humor  dictates  ? 
So  that,  left  to  themselves,  our  small  pupils  had  only  to 
imagine  themselves  the  characters  they  represented,  and 
they  immediately  comported  themselves  as  they  fancied 
those  characters  would  have  in  the  circumstances  shown 
in  the  play. 

I  have  mentioned  the  arches  of  greenery  used  for  "A 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream."  These  were  used  again  for 
the  Forest  of  Arden  when  the  play  was  carried  out  in 
school ;  but  whenever  possible  we  had  the  play  in  the  open 
air,  on  the  downs  or  under  the  trees  in  the  playground. 


CHAPTER  VI 
A  GIRLS'   PLAY 

THE  girls  were  so  pleased  with  their  own  successful 
readings  of  "As  You  Like  It,"  that  they  deter- 
mined to  write  a  play,  as  the  boys  had  done,  entirely  by 
themselves,  each  character  making  her  own  speeches  from 
whatever  authority  she  could  collect  material.  They  chose 
scenes  from  the  closing  part  of  the  life  of  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots,  and  I  will  copy  one  of  the  girls'  manuscripts 
exactly  as  it  was  made. 

EXECUTION  OF  MARY  QUEEN   OF  SCOTS 
Scene  I 

Enter  Queen  Mary  and  Ladies  in  Waiting.  The  Queen 
seats  herself  at  a  table  and  the  Ladies  sit  grouped  at 
needleiv<irk.    A  knock  is  Jieanl 

Queen  Makv.  Go  and  see  who  that  is  knocking  at 
the  door. 

Elizabeth    (Lady   in   Waiting).     Yes,   your    Majesty. 

\SJie  goes  to  the  door  and  talks  in  an  undertone  to  some 

one  ojitside,  then  returns^    It  is  Lord  Shrewsbury,  and  he 

requires  to  see  you,  your  Majesty. 

Queen  Mary.  Tell  him  I  cannot  see  him  just  at  present. 

109 


no      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Elizabeth.  [Goes  back  to  doo?-  and  speaks  to  incsscn- 
gci^    My  lady  says  she  cannot  see  you  just  at  present. 

Shrewsbury.  But  tell  her  my  business  is  veiy  impor- 
tant, and  therefore  I  must  see  her. 

Elizabeth.  [Ret?n'ning\  Madam,  he  says  his  business 
is  very  important,  so  therefore  he  must  see  you. 

Queen"  Mary.  [AftcrnuisiJig  for  a  zvhilc]  Well,  then, 
tell  him  I  will  see  him. 

Ejitc?'  Shrewsbury 

Shre'.vsbury.  I  am  very  sorry  to  tell  you,  madam,  that 
you  are  condemned  to  death.  To-morrow  at  eight  o'clock 
you  are  to  die.    Therefore  prepare  yourself,  madam. 

Queen  Mary.  [Half  faulting,  speaks  to  the  Ladies 
who  nui  and  support  Jicr^    What  does  he  say  .? 

Shrewsbury.  I  am  very  sorry  to  tell  you,  madam,  that 
you  are  condemned  to  death.  To-morrow  at  eight  o'clock 
you  are  to  die.    Therefore  prepare  yourself,  madam. 

Queen  Mary.  Can  it  be  true  that  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land has  consented  to  my  death  1 

Shrewsbury.  It  is  true,  madam.  [He  shows  the  war- 
raiif]    See,  there  is  her  signature  ! 

Queen  Mary.  I  solemnly  protest,  with  my  hand  on 
this  Testament  [laying  her  Jiand  on  volume  on  the  table\ 
that  I  have  never  done  anything  that  could  prejudice  the 
welfare  of  the  kingdom. 

[Exit  Shrewsbury  after  boiuing  hnv\ 

Queen  Mary.  [Rising']  Come,  my  ladies,  supper  — 
the  last,  alas  !  —  awaits  us.    Do  not  weep  for  me  ! 


A   (;i  RLS'   PLAY  I  13 

Jean  (Lady  in  Waiting).    Oh,  my  lady,  we  would  do 
anything  if  only  we  could  see  you  happy. 
\^Exit  Queen  slowly ;    the  Ladies  follow  Jicr,  iveeping] 

Scene  II 
Queen  Marv  seated  at  a  tabic.    Ladies  as  before 

Queen  Marv.    Go  and  fetch  me  my  handkerchiefs. 

Eliza r.ETH.  Yes,  your  Majesty.  \SJie  brings  them  in 
a  box.  The  Queen  turns  them  over  and  at  last  holds 
ftp  one^ 

Queen  Marv.  I  wall  have  this  one  with  the  gold 
border  to  bandage  my  eyes  on  the  scaffold  to-morrow. 

[Ladies  sob  alond^ 

Queen  Marv.  [Poijiting  to  eaeJi  one  of  her  Ladies  iti 
tnrn  as  they  sit  around  her']  To  you,  Jean,  I  leave  all  my 
rings  ;  to  you,  Elizabeth,  my  jewels  ;  to  you  my  dresses  ; 
to  you  my  ponies ;  and  to  you  my  money.  Ask  Bourgoin, 
my  physician,  to  attend  and  read  my  will. 

Enter  Bourgoin  witJi  the  will 
Bourgoin.  I  here  bequeath  all  my  jewels,  dresses, 
rings,  ponies,  money,  and  other  things  to  my  ladies  in 
waiting.  \^He  turns  to  the  Queen]  Will  you  sign  it, 
madam  .^  [77/r  Queen  dips  a  quill  pen  in  the  ink,  and 
after  pausing  a  moment  signs  it.  The  Ladies  all  eover 
their  eyes  with  their  Jiandke^rJiiefs] 

Bourgoin.    You  will  need  two  witnesses,  madam. 
Queen  Marv.    Elizabeth  and  Jean,  you  will  sign  this, 
please.    {^Both  Ladies  eonie  up  weeping  and  sign  it] 


114      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

JeAxX.  ^Falling  on  Jicr  knees  in  front  of  the  Queen] 
Oh,  madam,  we  would  willingly  give  our  lives  if  only  we 
could  see  you  happy  once  more. 

[Exit  BouRGOiN  after  boiving.     The  Queen   then  rises 
and  goes  off,  her  Ladies  follozuing  her'] 

Scene  III 

Queen  Mary,  kneeling  as  if  in  prayer.    A   knoeking  is 
Jieard  at  the  door  and  a  bell  strikes  eight  d eloek 

Queen  Mar  v.    Tell  those  intruders  to  wait  a  little. 
Jean.    Yes,   madam,    \llie   Sheriff,   bearing  a   luhite 
ivand,  p?ishes  past  Jier,  and  enters\ 

Sheriff.  Madam,  the  lords  await  you,  and  have  sent 
me  to  you.    Are  you  ready  } 

Queen  Mary.    Yes,  quite  ready.    Let  us  go. 
\Shc  rises  from  her  knees.    She  ivalks  zvith  dijfieulty,  so 
tivo  of  her  Ladies  support  her.    A  t  the  end  of  the  room 
she  is  met  by  the  Earls  of  Shrewsbury  and  Kent. 
The    Earl    of    Shrewsbury    orders   the    Ladies   in 
Waiting  to  stand  baek.    They  refuse.    Jean  exelaims, 
"No,   never!"    They  eling  to  her  dress  and  finally 
fall  on  their  knees.     When  they  have  sueeeeded  in  re- 
moving the  Ladies,  the  Queen  walks  on  a  few  steps, 
with  dignity.   She  then  meets  Andrew  Melvil,  her 
trusty  serva   t.    He  falls  on  Jiis  knees,  weeping'] 
Queen  Mary.    Thank  you,  good  Melvil,  for  your  con- 
stant fidelity.    Tell  my  son  all  that  you  know  and  all  that 
you  are  about  to  witness. 


A  GIRLS'  PLAY  II5 

Melvil.  It  will  be  the  most  sorrowful  message  I  ever 
carried,  to  announce  to  the  world  that  my  sovereign  and 
dear  mistress  is  dead. 

Queen  Mary.  Thou  shouldst  rather  rejoice,  good  Mel- 
vil, that  Mary  Stuart  has  arrived  at  the  close  of  her  mis- 
fortunes. Bear  these  tidings,  that  I  die  a  true  Scotchwoman, 
a  true  Frenchwoman.  Thou  knowest  that  this  world  is  only 
vanity,  and  full  of  troubles  and  misery.  May  God  forgive 
those  who  have  sought  my  death.  The  Judge  of  the  secret 
thoughts  and  actions  of  men  knows  that  I  have  always 
desired  the  union  of  Scotland  and  England.  Commend 
me  to  my  son,  and  tell  him  that  I  have  never  done  any- 
thing that  could  prejudice  the  welfare  of  .the  kingdom,  or 
his  quality  as  king,  or  detract  in  any  respect  from  our 
sovereign  prerogative. 

Kent.  [Reads  tJic  sentence  aloud  slowly^  You  have 
been  found  guilty  of  conspiring  against  the  life  of  our 
sovereign  lady  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  against  her  realm; 
therefore  the  sentence  passed  upon  you  is  that  your  head 
shall  be  severed  from  your  body. 

Queen  Mary.  I  am  a  queen  born,  not  subject  to  the 
laws.    I  have  never  sought  the  life  of  my  cousin  Elizabeth. 

Kent.  \Looking  at  the  crucifix  in  the  Queen's  hand'\ 
It  would  be  much  better  advised  of  you  to  have  Christ  in 
your  heart,  and  not  in  your  hand,  Madam. 

Queen  Mary.  I  cannot  hold  such  an  object  in  my 
hand  without  my  heart  being  attached  to  the  sufferings  it 
represents.  [  The  tzvo  Executioners  approacJi  and  attempt 
to  remove  her  veil,  but  tJie  Queen  motions  them  away] 


Il6      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

I  have  never  had  such  rough  valets  before  !  Ehzabeth  and 
Jean,  I  require  you.  [  With  their  help  she  revioves  her  veil 
and  outer  dress']  I  am  not  accustomed  to  do  this  before  so 
many  people.  \Her  Maids  sob  aloud]  Instead  of  weeping, 
you  should  rejoice.  I  am  very  happy  to  leave  this  world 
in  so  good  a  cause.  \SJie  turns  to  the  other  Maids]  I  give 
you  all  my  blessing. 

Executioner.  \^Kneeli7ig\  We  ask  your  pardon,  madam, 
for  the  deed  we  are  about  to  do. 

Queen  Marv.  I  forgive  you,  and  all  the  authors  of 
my  death.  [Jean  tJien  bandages  her  eyes  with  the  gold- 
fringed  handkerchief,  and  all  her  Maids  ivithdraw  to  the 
edge  of  the  scaffold,  iveeping.  She  tnrns  tozvards  the  block 
and  kneels  before  it]  My  God,  I  have  hoped  in  you.  I 
commit  myself  to  your  hands. 

Executioner.    God  save  Queen  Elizabeth  ! 

Shrewsbury.    And  so  perish  all  her  enemies  ! 
.  Kent.    Amen  ! 

The  girls,  as  before,  made  the  necessary  dresses  and 
properties,  and  in  order  to  get  these  correct  as  to  period 
and  fashion,  read  all  the  available  literature  on  the  subject. 
Because  Mary  had  declared  herself  to  be  a  "  good  French- 
woman," they  utilized  a  skirt  embroidered  with  fleurs-de-lis. 
They  copied  her  peculiar  headdress  carefully,  using  an  old 
bonnet  shape  for  the  purpose  and  edging  it  with  pearl 
beads. 

I  think  the  reader  will  agree  that  this  was  a  veiy  full 
and  successful  attempt  to  put  together  a  play  to  illustrate 


A  GIRLS'  PLAY  11/ 

the  period.  Moreover,  it  was  an  excellent  writing  and 
composition  lesson,  with  plenty  of  transcription  from  vari- 
ous books  to  give  practice  in  the  spelling  of  new  or  diffi- 
cult words,  and  to  help  form  the  habit  of  reading  for 
reference  and  information.  I  may  also  add  that  the  manu- 
script from  which  I  took  the  foregoing  play  was  written 
out  from  memory,  the  girl  who  wrote  it  having  lost  hei 
first  copy. 


CHAPTER  VII 
LITERATURE 

OF  course  the  children  could  not  lay  claim  to  a  very 
extensive  acquaintance  with  English  literature  if 
they  limited  their  dramatic  readings  to  Shakespeare's  plays 
or  Scott's  historical  novels.  Their  field  of  operations  was 
much  wider,  but  their  methods  of  working  were  still  origi- 
nal. They  learned  to  recite  such  poems  as  "  Charge  of 
the  Light  Brigade,"  "  Ye  Mariners  of  England,"  and 
"  Death  of  Nelson,"  and  introduced  them  into  their  plays 
—  the  last  two  into  their  play  "  Nelson,"  and  the  former 
into  "The  Crimea."  They  selected  a  boy  to  recite  while 
the  dead  Nelson  lay  in  state  ;  and  he  certainly  made  us 
all  see  mental  pictures.  I  have  heard  the  school  ask  for 
a  fourth  and  fifth  repetition  of  the  "  Charge  of  the  Light 
Brigade,"  that  much-hackneyed  school  recitation  !  It  was 
not  hackneyed  to  them,  of  course ;  and  they  always  con- 
cluded the  piece  by  having  the  "  Roll  Call  "  of  supposed 
survivors,  and  introduced  a  realistic  touch  by  letting  the 
last  man  stagger  up  just  as  his  number  was  called,  answer 
his  name,  and  fall  dead.  It  is  just  these  little  touches  that 
children  will  add  if  they  are  allowed,  and  which  make  all 
the  difference  between  the  prosaic  "  memory- work  "  repeti- 
tions and  the  glorious,  real,  living  Tccitations. 

]i8 


LITERATURE  I  I9 

The  girls,  too,  in  this  matter  were  very  original  in  their 


V 


own  way.  In  June,  for  instance,  they  would  organize  a 
sort  of  "'  Rose  "  play.  On  the  day  on  which  it  took  place 
the  room  was  tastefully  decorated  with  roses  of  every  sort. 
The  older  girls  selected  a  Rose  Queen  and  called  them- 
selves Rose  maidens.  Then  (and  here  m.y  point  comes  in) 
they  found  out  at  least  one  good  poem  or  part  of  a  poem, 
or  passage  of  poetical  prose,  from  good  standard  authors, 
and  either  sang  or  recited  in  turn  before  the  "Queen,"  — 
generally  accompanied  by  soft  music  on  the  piano,  — 
choosing  good  classical  compositions  where  possible.  In 
this  way  they  "  discovered  "  some  charming  old  poems 
which  are  not,  as  a  rule,  found  in  schools  ;  for  example, 
"The  Rose  had  been  washed,  just  washed  in  a  Shower, 
which  Mary  to  Anna  conveyed,"  and  "  The  Rose  upon 
my  Balcony."  Of  course  they  included  "The  Solitary 
Rose  "  and  any  references  to  roses  to  be  found  in  Tenny- 
son, Wordsworth,  Shakespeare,  etc.,  finishing  with  "  The 
Last  Rose  of  Summer"  and  the  singing  of  a  Sussex 
folk  song,   "  Rosebuds  in  June." 

Children  would  often  glorify  their  favorite  poems  in  a 
way  of  their  own.  One  little  girl  invited  a  chorus  of  girls 
to  help  her,  and  trained  them  to  act  in  dumb  show  while 
she  recited  Wordsworth's  "  Daffodils  "  in  a  most  inspired 
manner,  to  the  accompaniment  of  soft  music,  generally 
Mendelssohn's  "  Spring  Song."  The  chorus  would  pre- 
tend to  be  daffodils,  dressed  in  yellow  and  green  crinkled 
paper  ;  and  they  swayed,  or  danced,  or  nodded  their  heads, 
or  went  to  sleep,  or  flashed,   as  the  poem  directed.    All 


I20     THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

this  was  prepared  and  played  directly  after  the  afternoon 
session  —  for  many  of  the  older  pupils  would  beg  to  be 
allowed  to  "stay  in"  after  school  hours  and  make  up 
their  plays  and  invent  new  ones. 

Of  course  they  very  soon  discovered  possibilities  in  the 
works  of  Dickens.  It  had  long  been  our  rule  to  read  the 
"  Christmas  Carol  "  and  other  Christmas  tales  every  year 
just  before  Christmastide.  Naturally  when  we  commenced 
"playing"  our  lessons,  the  "Christmas  Carol"  showed 
its  adaptability.  The  older  boys  and  girls  commenced  by 
acting  the  "  Cratchitts'  Christmas  Dinner,"  and  used  to 
enter  most  whole-heartedly  into  the  spirit  of  the  thing. 
They  were  able  to  dress  the  piece  more  easily  than  their 
historical  plays,  because  the  period  represented. was  more 
modern.  Bob  Cratchitt  wore  a  long  white  scarf,  which 
dangled  below  his  waistcoat.  He  wore  the  black-tailed  coat 
which  did  duty  for  an  officer's  coat  in  the  "Nelson"  play. 
They  used  to  draw  a  table  up  in  front  of  the  school  fire 
on  dull,  dreary,  wet  winter  afternoons,  and  revel  in  the 
spirit  of  good  humor  and  loving  kindness  which  Dickens 
designed  to  inculcate. 

I  am  quite  sure  that  in  the  years  to  come,  when  lessons 
on  vulgar  fractions  have  been  long  forgotten  and  "  cob- 
webbed  o'er,"  those  afternoons  and  the  lessons  they  taught 
will  stand  out  in  relief  from  the  pages  of  .memory. 

If  Shakespeare  was  good  for  their  improvement  in 
English,  so  Dickens  w^as  their  textbook  for  homely  good- 
ness. We  who  read  and  love  Dickens  know  how  magically 
he  constructs  an  "atmosphere"  for  us  —  how,  like  a  silver 


LITERATURE  I23 

thread  running  through  a  string  of  pearls,  goodness  and 
virtue  connect  all  the  emotions  he  stirs  in  us.  So  it  was 
with  my  younger  pupils.  They  acted  the  "  Christmas 
Carol  "  every  Christmas  in  their  simple  fashion,  and  all 
felt  better  for  it.  From  Tiny  Tim  they  learned  to  sympa- 
thize with  all  weak,  afflicted  things.  They  learned  content- 
ment and  resignation  from  Bob  Cratchitt,  who  earned  but 
"  fifteen  of  his  own  namesakes  every  week,  yet  the  spirit 
of  Christmas  present  blessed  him."  They  learned  cheer- 
fulness and  good- will  from  Scrooge's  nephew  Fred,  who, 
although  "  Christmas  had  never  put  a  scrap  of  gold  or 
silver  in  his  pocket,"  said  "God  bless  it,"  and  would  keep 
his  Christmas  humor  to  the  last.  Even  Scrooge  himself 
had  lessons  to  teach  them  —  to  abhor  meanness  and  sel- 
fishness ;  to  be  merciful ;  to  use  Christmas  as  a  time  for 
putting  away  all  grudges  and  quarrels,  as  well  as  for  set- 
tling up  all  debts  ;  above  all,  not  to  be  afraid  of  reform- 
ing thoroughly,  when  necessary,  regardless  of  the  sneers  or 
jeers  of  others.  Fezziwig,  too,  bless  his  heart !  who  could 
"wink  with  his  calves"  in  the  good  old  Sir  Roger  de 
Coverley  dance  and  "  never  stagger,"  who  danced  with 
twenty  pairs  of  partners  —  "people  who  tlv;///^'/ dance,  too." 
Will  the  children  ever  recall  these  school  years  at  Christ- 
mas time  without  a  smile  and  a  tear  for  the  "  Fezzi wigs' 
Ball,"  which  they  played  so  "  really  and  truly"  in  the  days 
gone  by  ?  The  name  Fezziwig  will  bring  back  to  them 
the  fat,  rosy  boy  (stuffed  in  the  region  of  the  waistcoat 
with  dusters  to  complete  the  illusion  !)  who  sat  up  at  the 
spindle-legged  desk,  once  the  hermit's  cell  for  Friar  Tuck, 


124      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

and  beamed  over  spectacles,  which  sat  with  difficulty  on 
his  snub  little  nose,  while  he  called,  "  Hello,  Dick !  Chir- 
rup, Ebenezer !  "  and  we  all  settled  down  to  enjoy  such  a 
good  time. 

It  was  all  real.  Truly  the  page  was  no  "dead  letter," 
but  living  spirit  to  us.  How  infectious  was  the  motherly, 
beaming  smile  of  Mrs.  Fezziwig,  bedight  in  cap  and  rib- 
bons, and  how  really  sorry  we  all  felt  for  "the  girl  who 
had  her  ears  boxed  by  her  mistress,"  and  "  the  boy  who 
was  suspected  of  not  having  enough  to  eat."  I  feel  con- 
vinced that  the  mere  act  of  playing  and  enjoying  the 
"  Christmas  Carol  "  was  a  true  education  to  my  pupils  — 
it  drew  out  the  latent  sympathies  in  which  they  were  not 
naturally  lacking. 

And  I  am  quite  sure  that  the  type  of  so-called  educa- 
tion which  contents  itself  with  such  present  "  results  "  as 
a  piece  of  composition,  immaculately  penned  and  all  cor- 
rectly spelled,  while  it  may  exhibit  a  glaring  paucity  of 
ideas,  or  is  satisfied  if  it  can  show  ' '  four  sums  right  and 
neatly  worked,"  is  a  very  poor  pretense  at  educating 
w^orthy  men  and  women  for  the  battle  of  life.  Perhaps  a 
critic  may  say  that  the  religious  and  moral  side  of  the 
children  is  attended  to  during  the  daily  hour  for  religious 
instruction.  But  if  religion  be  not  the  guiding  principle 
of  our  daily  life,  for  all  day,  it  becomes  worse  than  noth- 
ing to  us.  It  is  impossible  to  shut  away  moral  teaching 
into  a  compartment  of  the  mind.  It  should  be  freely  and 
openly  diffused  throughout  the  thoughts,  to  ' '  leaven  the 
whole  lump." 


LITERATURE  12$ 

Nature  study,  properly  treated,  can  touch  both  senses 
and  emotions  —  can  awaken  an  instinct  leading  up  to  na- 
ture's God.  There  was  a  Great  Teacher  once  who  scorned 
not  to  teach  the  highest  and  grandest  truths  through  simple 
parables  on  nature  —  who  taught  them  graphically,  in  the 
open  air,  from  observation  of  the  actual  objects.  So,  too, 
good  literature  can  stir  human  emotions  and  guide  and 
school  human  passions  —  can  prevent  us  from  excess  of 
introspection,  from  dwelling  on  self  ;  and  there  is  more 
need  for  inculcating  this  love  of  nature  and  good  literature 
in  the  mind  of  the  workingman's  child  than  in  that  of  the 
child  of  higher  station.  In  the  latter  case,  the  child  may 
properly  be  left  to  parents  who,  if  they  possess  education 
and  culture,  can  look  after  the  reading  and  moral  training 
of  their  own  child.  But  parents  of  the  working  class  have 
no  time,  even  if  they  have  the  ability,  to  direct  their  chil- 
dren's reading. 

Therefore  I  judged  it  to  be  of  vital  importance  that 
every  one  of  my  pupils  should  be  given  opportunity  for 
getting  on  good  terms  with  our  English  authors.  We  did 
not  scorn  the  lighter  vein,  when  it  presented  -itself  in  the 
form  of  "The  Pickwick  Papers."  I  remember  one  real, 
all-round  "  dunce  "  being  reformed  and  becoming  a  com- 
paratively bright  boy  through  being  cast  for  the  part  of 
Mr.  Winkle  in  scenes  which  the  boys  got  up  from  the 
early  chapters  of  that  book.  It  was  quite  a  revelation  to 
us  all  to  view  the  awakening,  or  rather  the  transformation. 
The  fact  was  that,  rather  than  look  ridiculous  in  the  eyes 
of  his  schoolfellows,  he  made  a  great  effort  to  read  and 


126      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

master  his  "  part,"  and,  in  doing  so,  discovered  his  own 
powers,  which  from  that  time  he  cultivated  and  improved. 
When  leaving  school  he  expressed  a  desire  to  possess  a 
copy  of  "  The  Pickwick  Papers."  He  evidently  did  not 
intend  throwing  aside  his  books,  but  had  made  a  beginning 
and  meant  to  go  on. 

The  girls  were  particularly  fond  of  Louisa  M.  Alcott's 
''  Little  Women  "  —  as,  indeed,  what  girls  are  not  ?  They 
acted  as  much  of  this  book  as  was  possible,  becoming  so 
familiar  with  its  contents  that  they  could  quote  many  of 
the  chapters  by  heart.  A  kind  friend  presented  us  with 
copies  of  "Wood  Magic  "  and  "  Bevis,"  both  by  Richard 
Jefferies.  These  three  books  were,  I  feel  sure,  stories  of 
the  authors'  own  childhood.  They  were  tales  of  human 
children,  and  they  appealed,  therefore,  to  human  children. 
The  objection  is  often  made  by  teachers  of  girls,  when  dis- 
cussing ways  and  means  of  using  the  dramatic  method  in 
school,  that  the  difficulty  is  that  there  are  only  girls  and 
no  boys  for  male  parts.  Meg,  Jo,  Beth,  and  Amy  easily 
solved  the  difficulty,  and  in  the  story  of  their  girlhood 
one  can  find  ample  material  for  a  start.  After  that,  you 
may  trust  the  girls  to  be  resourceful  enough  to  find  their 
own  ways  and  means.- 

In  the  story  of  "  Bevis  "  we  have  an  account  of  how 
two  schoolboys  ' '  played ' '  school ;  how  they  played  a 
Roman  battle  ;  how  they  manufactured  a  gun,  a  raft,  a 
boat,  and  went  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  round  a  small 
lake,  finding  a  real  island  and  living  on  it ;  which  may  all 
sound  commonplace  enough  as  I  have  described  it,  but 


LITERATURE  I29 

which  is  very  far  from  commonplace  as  written  by  the  pen 
of  Jefferies  in  real  ''boy"  language.  Our  boys,  on  read- 
ing it,  were  instantly  fired  with  the  desire  to  play  it.  I 
must  confess,  that  I  was  also !  Bevis's  first  craft  was  an 
old  wooden  packing  case,  and  his  scene  of  operations  a 
brook  near  his  house.  Very  good  packing  cases  we  had 
in  plenty  in  the  school  shed,  and  a  brook  within  ten  min- 
utes of  the  schoolhouse.  The  packing  cases  were  heavy, 
and  July  days  are  often  hot,  but  down  to  the  brook  we 
hied  us  on  the  hottest  day  I  have  ever  experienced.  The 
air  quivered  with  heat,  and  not  the  slightest  particle  of 
shade  could  we  find  — -  not  even  a  hawthorn  bush.  But 
the  spirit  of  adventure  was  upon  us  and  would  not  be 
quenched.  A  network  of  brooks  and  drains  separates 
our  town  from  the  seashore.  These  are  spanned  at  inter- 
vals by  rough  wooden  bridges  for  cattle  to  cross  from  one 
pasture  to  the  other.  Bridges  have  always  a  fascination 
for  children,  and  we  speedily  chose  the  neighborhood  of 
one  of  them  for  our  base  of  operations.  Naturally  we  had 
to  experiment  a  good  deal  before  the  packing  case  behaved 
itself  properly  as  a  raft ;  but  when  it  did,  and  the  first 
passenger  gently  punted  under  the  bridge,  excitement  ran 
high.  Soon  off  came  boots  and  stockings,  and  we  were  in 
the  thick  of  a  game.  The  raft  went  on  voyages  to  all 
kinds  of  places  and  the  chorus  sat  along  the  banks  to  ex- 
plain matters.  One  boy  found  his  toes  sinking  into  yellow 
clay.  ''  Oh,  this  is  gold  !  "  shouted  he.  "  Then  it  must 
be  Africa,"  cried  one  of  the  chorus.  "  Where  I  have  been 
it  is  blue  clay,"  said  another.    ''Oh,  that's  diamonds!" 


130      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

quickly  decided  the  chorus;  "it  is  South  Africa."  The 
high  temperature  supphed  a  reaUstic  touch  to  the  idea  of 
'"  Afric's  sunny  fountains,"  and  soon  a  ''  South  African  " 
game  was  in  full  progress,  some  of  the  little  bare-legged 
boys  forming  an  "  ostrich  farm." 

There  was  no  lack  of  interest  next  morning  when  we 
brought  out  the  large  map  and  the  geography  lesson  began. 
The  mere  mention  of  South  Africa  brought  the  knowing 
little  twinkles  (which  practised  teachers  recognize  as  their 
most  encouraging  sign)  into  all  those  suddenly  alert  eyes  ; 
tongues  were  loosened  and  every  point  of  fact  regarding 
that  country  was  referred  to  the  spot  by  the  brooks  where 
we  had  played.  New  names  and  the  new  facts  regarding 
them  were  treasured  up  for  naming  special  places  by  the 
brookside,  for  we  had  hidden  our  packing-case  rafts  in 
long  reeds  for  future  use.  I  can  assure  my  readers  that 
the  one  book,  "  Bevis,"  had  led  to  more  than  passing  ac- 
quaintance with  good  literature,  for  the  book  rendered  aid 
to  the  game,  and,  inversely,  the  game  lent  a  halo  to  the  book. 

There  was  another  book  which  became  immensely  pop- 
ular with  the  children.  It  is  called  "  Days  before  History," 
and  describes  the  life  of  a  boy  in  prehistoric  times.  This 
book  provided  games  which  lasted  for  months  and  filled 
all  the  boys'  playtimes  and  leisure  hours.  It  appealed  the 
more  forcibly  to  children  because  it  dealt  with  the  life  of 
a  boy  more  particularly  than  with  "  grown  ups."  The  boy 
was  named  "Tig,"  and  to  this  day  the  children  remem- 
ber their  "Tig"  games.  They  even  built  a  shed,  very 
roughly  it   is   true,    in   the   lane   outside   the   school   and 


LITERATURE  I3I 

named  it  the  "  Tig  shed."  The  wood  was  obtained  from 
the  remains  of  an  old  disused  gallery  and  its  accompany- 
ing desks.  The  boys  supplied  their  own  tools.  At  first 
they  had  made  a  hut  on  the  hillside  in  the  real  fashion  of 
Tig's  relatives,  by  pulling  down  the  lower  branches  of  a 
convenient  tree  and  pegging  them  to  the  ground,  calling 
it  their  "rooftree."  But  they  wanted  to  be  near  the  school 
premises  ;  so,  utilizing  the  neighboring  trees  as  much  as 
possible,  they  built  a  shed,  where  they  played  at  prehistoric 
times.  •  They  read  in  their  ''  Days  before  History  "  how 
the  first  cups  and  other  utensils  were  made.  So  after  a 
long  and  diligent  hunt  they  found  a  spot  where  the  right 
sort  of  clay  was  to  be  found,  and  set  to  work  according  to 
the  directions  in  the  book.  I  need  not  tell  how  delighted 
they  were  to  mix  and  knead  the  clay  with  water,  using 
their  hands,  nor  of  the  delightful  mess  they  made  on  the 
school  floor  in  the  region  of  the  fireplace.  They  proved 
by  painful  experience  that  prehistoric  man  had  evidently 
nothing  to  learn  from  educated  folks  on  the  subject  of 
pottery  making  without  tools,  for  their  first  rough  basins 
cracked  in  the  baking  process,  which  took  place  in  the 
hot  ashes  piled  over  them.  A  second  attempt  resulted  in 
better-shaped  cups,  which  would  stand  straight  and  hold 
water.  There  was  a  great  ceremony  of  drinking  water 
from  the  cup.  Subsequently  it  was  placed  in  the  school 
museum  and  often  passed  for  a  bit  of  real  antique  work. 

There  is  very  little  difference  between  this  game  of 
making  prehistoric  pottery  and  clay-modeling  lessons  in 
school.    But  that  bit  of  difference  makes  all  the  difference 


132      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

in  the  world.  It  is  a  game,  not  a  lesson.  It  is  enthusiastic 
(not  to  say  impulsive!),  not  dull.  It  is  voluntary,  not  forced. 
It  teaches  self-reliance,  not  reliance  on  a  teacher's  initiative. 
It  is  informal,  not  formal. 

After  we  had  played  at  being  Stone  Age  folk,  one  can 
imagine  that  more  than  a  casual  and  passing  interest 
attached  itself  to  some  really  good  specimens  of  Stone  Age 
ax  heads,  flint  scrapers,  and  arrowheads,  which  had  for 
some  years  reposed  in  the  school  museum.  We  realized 
how  much  men  had  lost  by  civilization  when  we  tried, 
fruidessly,  to  chip  a  flint  into  an  ax  head  —  or  into  any 
shape  at  all  —  much  less  to  polish  or  grind  it ! 

Our  attempts  at  prehistoric  cookery  met  with  greater 
success.  Having  read  directions  from  the  history  of  Tig, 
one  of  the  boys  smuggled  a  herring  into  school,  while  some 
one  else  brought  clay.  The  herring  in  its  clay  covering 
was  placed  in  hot  ashes  under  the  fireplace  and  allowed 
to  remain  there  during  drawing-lesson  time.  A  few  pota- 
toes, dug  from  the  boys'  own  school  garden,  kept  it  com- 
pany ;  but  this  was  an  anachronism,  since  we  all  knew 
that  potatoes  did  not  grow  in  England  when  Tig  was  a 
boy.  At  playtime  the  herring  was  sampled,  and,  of  course, 
voted  the  best  ever  tasted  —  albeit  the  side  nearest  the  fire 
was  charred.  An  unlucky  visitor  who  chanced  to  call  was 
forced  to  taste  the  herring,  and,  being  a  man  who  had 
roughed  it  in  Australia,  he  did  so  with  very  good  grace 
indeed. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
GEOGRAPHY 

THE  geography  lesson  gave  us  no  trouble  to  dramatize 
and  was  particularly  well  adapted  for  being  played 
as  a  game.  The  geography  game  began  by  being  played  in 
the  desks  with  sand-modeling  trays,  and  drawing  in  colors. 
Children  would  model  a  county  or  part  of  a  country  and 
cut  out  paper  lighthouses,  make  paper  boats  and  bridges 
or  paper  animals,  and  place  them  standing  upright  in  the 
sand.  Then,  in  turn,  they  would  talk  about  them  with 
their  teacher.  Again  they  would  make  colored  drawings 
(of  their  own  —  each  child  originating  according  to  his 
own  mental  impressions)  to  illustrate  the  lessons  on  towns 
or  districts  which  had  been  given  to  them.  For  instance, 
one  child,  to  illustrate  a  lesson  on  Reading,  had  drawn  a 
large  factory  with  horses  and  wagons  outside.  This,  he 
explained,  was  a  biscuit  factory.  Another  large  building 
appeared  at  the  end  of  a  roadway  represented  by  two  wavy 
lines.    This  he  had  labeled  a  jail  —  and  so  on. 

Our  next  step  in  the  direction  of  geography  games  was 
suggested  by  a  little  Grade  III  pupil.  I  discovered  her 
one  wet  dinner  hour  with  the  map  of  the  world  spread 
out  on  the  floor  and  a  ring  of  small,  eager  children  kneel- 
ing around  it.    She  had  a  little  black  doll  in  a  tiny  toy  boat 


134     THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

on  wheels,  and  she  was  pretending  to  bring  it  on  a  voyage 
from  South  Africa  to  England.  All  the  while  she  kept 
up  a  string  of  sentences  in  squeaky  broken  English,  sup- 
posed to  be  spoken  by  the  doll. 

Incidentally  and  unconsciousl)'  she  was  giving  her  small 
audience  a  splendid  idea  of  the  various  interesting  things 
and  places  passed,  and  even  climatic  conditions  ;  for  she 
made  the  doll  shiver  when  he  got  into  colder  latitudes. 
Funniest  of  all,  when  she  landed  him  at  the  London 
Docks,  she  produced  a  little  tin  toy  railway  train  (ever  so 
many  sizes  smaller  than  the  doll !)  and,  seating  him  on  it, 
rattled  him  off  to  a  "  woolen  "  town  to  buy  a  cloth  over- 
coat. Quickly  some  one  suggested  :  ' '  Can  we  play  it  again 
to-morrow  and  then  I  '11  bring  a  little  overcoat  ?  I' 11  make  it 
to-night."  Another  followed  with  :  "  I  '11  make  him  a  whole 
suit."  They  were  as  good  as  their  word,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  the  whole  class  joined  in  the  game  with 
great  gusto.  The  little  doll  was  rattled  all  over  the  map 
of  England  and  bought  presents  at  every  stopping  place. 
Afterwards,  of  course,  he  was  treated  to  a  voyage  home, 
by  a  different  route  from  that  taken  when  traveling  to 
England.  He  had  to  show  his  friends  his  presents  and 
tell  where  he  bought  them.  Notice  how,  unconsciously, 
the  children  made  use  of  repetition  to  strengthen  memory. 
They  were  really  repeating  the  manufactures  of  English 
towns  —  only  they  did  not  do  it  in  the  bad  old  "  learning- 
strings-of -facts  "  way. 

We  played  this  and  other  doll  games  until  we  quite 
naturally  drifted  into  substituting  real  live  pupils  for  the 


GEOGRAPHY  135 

dolls,  and,  once  more  hanging  up  the  maps,  pretended 
that  various  parts  of  the  schoolroom,  or  playground,  or 
neighborhood  were  the  physical  features  of  other  places. 
This  I  called  the  geography  game  proper,  and  it  originated 
in  the  classroom  set  apart  for  Grades  I  and  II.  Their 
first  game  dealt  with  the  zones.  They  pretended  that  the 
north  side  of  their  room  was  the  north  pole  —  it  hap- 
pened to  be  the  coldest  side  of  the  room,  and  the  fireplace, 
being  on  the  south  side,  made  a  very  appropriate  warmth 
for  the  "equator."  The  "arctic  region"  was  inhabited  by 
boys  who  pretended  to  be  Esquimaux,  Polar  bears,  seals, 
walruses,  or  reindeer.  Other  children  pretended  to  be  ice- 
bergs. Jack  Frost,  frozen  sea,  etc.  A  bright  boy  and  girl 
were  picked  out  and  allowed  to  be  travelers  in  the  Arctic 
region,  where  they  held  conversations  with  the  Esquimaux, 
during  which  the  latter  described  the  conditions  under 
which  they  were  supposed  to  live  —  climate,  seasons,  etc. 
The  next  day  they  varied  the  game  by  getting  into  a  big 
ship  —  the  ever-useful  soap  box  on  wheels  —  and  being 
jammed  in  the  ice  floes. 

Their  method  of  representing  icebergs  was  novel,  being 
merely  two  rows  of  little  girls  with  their  white  pinafores 
over  their  heads.  They  were  quite  glad  to  be  anything,  so 
long  as  they  were  "  in  the  game,"  and  busied  themselves 
by  making  up  a  long  speech  about  the  iceberg,  finish- 
ing with  an  original  verse  in  which,  I  remember,  "ice 
and  snow"  rimed  conveniently  with  "  Esquimaux."  The 
Esquimau  boys  had  a  little  scene  of  their  own,  pretending 
to  break  holes  in  the  ice  and  spear  seals  and  fish,  the  two 


136    THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

latter  being  impersonated  by  small  boys  who  "  swam  "  under 
the  desks,  the  tops  of  which  represented  ice.  The  inkwell 
holes  were  the  breathing  holes  for  the  "  seals." 

On  the  third  day  the  "iceberg"  was  allowed  to  break 
away  from  its  surrounding  ice  under  the  more  genial  air 
of  spring  and  travel  to  Newfoundland.  En  route  it  collided 
with  a  "  ship,"  which  it  wrecked.  Of  course  the  "wreck  " 
was  the  outcome  of  the  "  fog  "  which  sprang  into  being  on 
the  approach  of  the  iceberg  to  the  shores  of  Newfoundland. 
The  "  fog  "  was  composed  of  little  girls  waving  their  pina- 
fores up  and  down.  Then  Newfoundland  fishermen  bravely 
came  to  the  rescue  of  the  wrecked  Englishmen  and  rowed 
them  ashore  in  a  boat.  The  little  girls  who  had  been  a 
fog  now^  most  obligingly  became  "  codfish  drying  in  the 
sun."  This  time  the  ever- versatile  pinafores  were  dangled 
over  backs,  and  their  owners  stood  in  a  row  with  their  faces 
to  the  wall.  Of  course  the  rescued  men,  while  being  accom- 
modated in  the  fishermen's  hut,  asked  questions  about  all 
that  they  saw.  First  they  noticed  the  "  codfish  drying  in 
the  sun,"  and  the  fishermen  told  them  that  they  caught 
about  "  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  codfish  in  one 
year."    The  game  then  went  on  in  a  kind  of  dialogue  : 

Traveler.    Are  cod  the  only  fish  you  catch  ? 

Fisherman.  Oh,  no !  We  catch  plenty  of  salmon  in 
the  rivers,  too. 

Traveler.    Do  the  fogs  trouble  you  on  the  island  ? 

Flsherman.  The  fogs  do  not  come  any  nearer  than  the 
Grand  Banks  out  there,  unless  a  southeast  wind  blows. 


GEOGRAPHY  I37 

Traveler.  Do  you  grow  pretty  much  the  same  crops 
as  we  do  in  England  ? 

Fisherman.  Well,  barley  and  oats  grow  everywhere, 
but  not  wheat.  We  have  a  very  even  and  moist  climate, 
so  we  grow^  grasses  regularly. 

Traveler.    How  large  is  this  island  ? 

Fisherman.  Some  say  it  is  much  larger  than  Ireland, 
and  it  is  the  nearest  American  land  to  Ireland. 

Traveler.  I  daresay  you  are  proud  to  belong  to  the 
Dominion  of  Canada } 

Fisherman.  \^Indignantl)f\  That  is  just  where  you  Eng- 
lishmen show  ignorance.  We  do  not  belong  to  Canada. 
We  are  a  separate  colony  —  Britain's  oldest  colony  ! 

Traveler.  Oh,  I  am  sorry  I  made  such  a  mistake, 
but  I  shall  make  no  mistake  if  I  say  what  a  splendid 
harbor  you  have  here. 

Fisherman.  Ah!  you  may  say  that  with  truth.  The 
harbor  of  St.  John's  is  one  of  the  very  best  on  the  Atlantic 
coast.  [^Hcre  the  rest  of  the  Class  stamp  loudly  on  the 
floor\ 

Traveler.    What  is  that  t 

Fisherman.  That's  the  thirty-two  pounder.  It  will  go 
off  every  half  hour  in  foggy  weather.  [Class  viake  pro- 
longed siren  Jioot\  And  that's  a  compressed  air  trumpet 
which  blows  every  minute  to  warn  ships. 

The  reader  can,  no  doubt,  trace  the  influence  of  the 
textbook  on  geography  in  this  dialogue.  The  point  is,  that 
the  dry  matter  is  broken  up  into  dialogue,  and,  by  means 


138      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

of  action,  movement,  interest,  and  repetition  is  rendered 
easy  to  memorize. 

Naturally,  the  first  game  being  a  success,  another  was 
soon  in  progress,  and  this  time  the  travelers  set  out  for 
the  warm  end  of  the  room,  otherwise  the  equator  and  the 
torrid  zone.  This  time  also  a  boy  represented  the  Emperor 
Equator,  and  the  torrid  zone  was  his  sun  palace.  Children 
impersonated  elephants,  tigers,  and  serpents.  The  trav- 
elers were  supposed  to  be  bitten  by  the  latter  and  to  fall 
ill,  etc.  They  found  large  butterflies  and  mosquitoes. 
One  of  them  caught  the  fever.  One  part  of  the  room  be- 
came a  jungle,  very  hot,  with  no  rain  for  a  long  time,  and 
then  suddenly  torrents  of  rain  (imitated  by  children  tap- 
ping one  finger  on  the  palm  of  the  other  hand  like  the 
pattering  of  rain).  The  travelers  got  into  swampy  ground, 
where  they  found  the  hippopotamus  rolling  in  the  muddy 
pools,  and  the  rhinoceros.  Of  course  the  boys  thoroughly 
enjoyed  representing  these  animals.  It  was  also  quite  to 
their  taste  to  be  native  bearers.  They  rigged  up  two 
bamboo  poles  with  sacking  stretched  across  them  and 
gave  the  travelers  rides  across  the  swampy  ground  in  fine 
style.  During  the  whole  time  dialogue  was  kept  up  and 
the  various  "animals"  acted  their  parts  —  the  travelers 
asking  questions  in  the  style  of  the  previous  game  and 
the  natives  answering  them.  Crossing  the  rivers  the  trav- 
elers had  hairbreadth  escapes  from  crocodiles  and  alliga- 
tors. Now  and  again  they  stalked  and  shot  an  antelope, 
and  a  boy  with  a  long  neck  was  selected  for  a  giraffe.  The 
school  palm  was  supposed  to  be  a  date  palm.    Some  one 


C^EOGRAPHV  139 

brought  real  dates,  which  the  travelers  pretended  to  gather 
and  eat.  As  each  child  was  expected  to  represent  some 
person  or  thing  if  possible,  they  were  sometimes  puzzled 
to  find  something  which  had  not  already,  been  chosen  by 
a  companion  ;  and  to  show  how  well  they  looked  up  their 
subject,  they  chose,  in  addition  to  the  things  already  men- 
tioned, aloes,  coffee,  gold  and  gold  dust,  gorillas,  chim- 
panzees, parrots,  and  ostriches. 

The  other  zones  furnished  games  of  a  similar  sort  with, 
of  course,  the  little  variations  and  originalities  which  chil- 
dren will  introduce  into  the  games  they  play  spontaneously. 

Grade  III  next  essayed  the  geography  game,  and  (here 
comes  in  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  allowing  the 
scholars  to  make  their  personality  felt  in  the  choice  of 
means  of  expression)  their  game  had  more  of  real  play  in 
it  than  of  drama.  Their  first  game  they  styled  "  Coal  and 
Iron  Towns."  From  their  geography  books  they  picked 
out  the  names  of  all  the  towns  in  England  specially  noted 
for  coal  or  iron  produce.  These  they  printed  with  colored 
paints  on  drawing  paper,  in  type  large  enough  to  be  read 
by  all  the  children  in  the  class  at  once  when  held  in  front 
of  their  desks.  The  name  of  the  town  was  printed  very 
large,  and  underneath  appeared  the  names  of  the  articles 
for  which  the  town  was  noted.  This  occupied  but  a  very 
short  time  when  each  child  undertook  one  ticket.  Then 
they  chose  boys  or  girls  to  hold  the  tickets  in  front  of 
the  class,  having  first  placed  them  in  positions  as  nearly 
as  possible  approaching  the  correct  geographical  locations 
on  the  map.  The  director  of  the  game  appointed  himself 


I40      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

a  merchant  in  an  ofifice,  with  a  telephone  and  a  type- 
writer. The  telephone,  by  the  way,  was  a  long  string  with 
a  tin  lid  fastened  at  each  end.  He  waited  until  the  whole 
class  had  been  given  time  to  master  fairly  well  the  names 
of  the  towns  and  their  produce.  Then  all  the  "  towns  " 
turned  their  tickets  blank  side  outwards.  The  "merchant" 
telephoned  to  the  "office"  (otherwise  the  class)  to  "send  up 
Mr.  So-and-so,"  naming  one  of  the  boys.  Mr.  So-and-so 
duly  came  up  and  received  his  orders.  Perhaps  they  were  : 
"  Mr.  So-and-so,  you  are  to  go  to  all  the  '  iron  '  towns  of 
England  and  bring  me  samples  of  iron  from  each.  I  have 
written  to  the  principal  firms  and  told  them  that  you  will 
call  for  samples." 

Mr.  So-and-so  then  had  to  board  a  train  (a  boy's  back, 
of  course  !),  which  stopped  at  every  town.  If  it  were  an 
"iron"  town,  he  was  to  get  out,  get  a  sample  of  iron, 
and  go  on  again.  If  it  were  not,  he  must  sit  still  in  the 
train  until  it  moved  off  again. 

The  train  would  start  amid  much  screeching,  whistling, 
and  steam-engine  noises.  Pulling  up  at  the  first  "station," 
which  would  perhaps  be  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  the  boy  hold- 
ing the  name  card  would  call  out  "  Newcastle !  New- 
castle !  "  Should  Mr.  So-and-so  sit  still  and  impassive,  the 
train  would  presently  move  on  again  ;  but  should  he,  from 
ignorance,  alight  from  the  train  and  demand,  "A  sample 
of  your  iron,  please,"  the  holder  of  the  name  card  would 
triumphantly  turn  it  round  and  show  "noted  for  coal,  ship- 
building, machinery,  chemicals,  glass."  A  telephone  mes- 
sage would  be  flashed  along  to  the  master :   ' '  Your  man 


141 


GEOGRAPHY  I43 

wasting  his  time  at  Newcastle."  Should  he  pass  an 
"iron"  town  and  fail  to  alight,  a  telephone  message  would 
be  sent:  "Your  man  neglected  to  call  at  Middlesbrough." 

The  "  master  "  made  a  note  of  all  these  little  messages, 
and  when  his  "  man  "  came  to  report  himself  and  show 
his  samples,  his  errors  would  be  pointed  out  to  him  and 
a  certain  sum  docked  from  his  wages.  He  was  some- 
times told  that  his  services  as  traveler  would  not  be  re- 
quired again.  The  fun  of  the  game  came  next ;  for,  as  the 
"man"  returned  from  the  "master's"  office,  the  "towns" 
drew  up  in  two  rows  facing  each  other,  and  he  had  to 
"run  the  gauntlet"  to  the  tune  of  "Newcastle  for  coal; 
Middlesbrough  for  iron,"  to  the  accompaniment  of  playful 
blows  with  handkerchiefs.  The  game  would  progress  until 
all  the  chorus  had  taken  their  turn  at  being  traveler. 

The  class  next  made  out  tickets  for  a  game  combining 
"cotton  and  woolen"  towns  of  England,  and  played  it  in  a 
similar  way,  afterwards  making  up  another  game  including 
all  the  other  manufactures  which  they  could  find  out  about. 
As  soon  as  the  manufactures  were  so  well  known  that  the 
chorus  made  very  few^,  if  any,  mistakes,  the  class  attempted 
more  dramatic  geography. 

They  would  take  one  county  or  district  and  try  to  repre- 
sent it  in  the  form  of  a  play.  They  followed  the  order  of 
their  textbook  on  geography  and  began  with  the  northern 
counties,  and  not,  as  one  might  have  supposed,  with  Sus- 
sex or  London.  Their  dramatic  rendering  of  Cumberland 
and  the  Lake  District  was  interesting  and  amusing.  The 
choms  of  litde  girls  before  referred  to  in  this  chapter  knelt 


144      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

on  the  floor,  forming  an  irregular  oval  as  nearly  like  the 
shape  of  Lake  Windermere  as  the  space  would  permit. 
Each  one  of  them  then  delivered  a  speech  about  the  lake. 
On  the  whole,  the  speeches  were  fairly  correct  and  had 
the  merit  of  being  original.    Here  is  one  : 

"  We  are  the  lake  fairies.  We  live  on  Lake  Winder 
mere.  It  is  a  beautiful  lake  of  clear  water  studded  with 
islands.  It  is  the  longest,  largest,  and  most  beautiful  lake 
in  the  district,  and  I  am  sure  it  well  deserves  the  name  of 
'  Queen  of  the  Lakes.'  It  is  fourteen  miles  in  length,  and 
in  one  place  it  is  forty  fathoms  deep.  Look  there  towards 
the  north  and  see  how  it  is  surrounded  by  grand  peaks 
and  mountain  masses.  Perhaps  you  can  see  the  '  mighty 
Helvellyn.'  From  its  southern  end  it  sends  out  the  River 
Leven,  which  runs  into  Morecambe  Bay." 

A  party  of  the  older  pupils  of  the  class  now  pretended 
to  be  Lancashire  people  out  on  an  excursion  to  the  Lake 
District.  They  arranged  a  railway  station  at  each  end  of 
the  room,  and  a  train  (two  soap  boxes  —  one  for  engine 
and  one  for  carriages!);  then,  after  buying  tickets,  with 
cardboard  coins,  they  set  out  for  Keswick  Station.  After 
alighting,  but  before  going  to  view  the  lakes,  they  decided 
to  look  at  the  black-lead  pencil  factory  and  to  go  down  a 
lead  mine.  This  was  splendid  fun.  They  slung  a  stout 
rope  over  one  of  the  schoolroom  beams  and  fastened  an 
old  waste-paper  basket  at  one  end,  several  boys  holding 
the  other.  A  small  boy  now  volunteered  to  descend  the 
mine  in  the  cage.  He  got  into  the  basket  and  held  on 
tightly  with  both  hands.    Then  the  boys  hauled  him  up 


GEorxRAniY  145 

to  the  beam  and  afterwards  slowly  let  him  down  again. 
By  this  time  some  of  the  boys  had  converted  themselves 
into  miners,  all  pretending  to  work  diligently.  The  visitor 
was  shown  over  the  mine  —  asking  questions  all  the  while 

and  on  leaving  had  a  lead  pencil  given  to  him  as  a 

souvenir.  Leaving  Keswick  (which  they  always  connected 
in  their  minds  with  lead  pencils,  the  mine,  and  the  waste- 
paper  basket ! ),  they  again  took  train  to  Windermere. 
Here  they  had  rigged  up  a  grand  hotel  with  the  magic 
sign  ''Teas  provided  "  outside.  I  wondered  what  this  had 
to  do  with  geography,  but  later  I  found  out  their  ingenuity. 
The  travelers  admired  the  lake,  hired  a  boat  and  were 
rowed  about  in  it,  talked  to  the  boatman  and  to  some 
fishermen  whom  they  passed,  talked  and  listened  to  the 
lake  fairies  (one  of  whose  speeches  is  recorded  above),  and 
finally  went  to  the  hotel.  Here  they  decided  to  sleep  for 
the  night  and,  sending  for  the  proprietress,  they  asked  if 
they  might  have  fresh  fish  for  supper. 

Landlady.  Oh,  yes !  I  will  send  my  man  to  catch 
some  for  you. 

Traveler.  Does  he  catch  them  in  the  lake  ? 

Landlady.  No,  in  the  river  which  runs  from  the  lake. 

Traveler.  What  river  is  that .? 

Landlady.  The  Leven. 

Traveler.  Which  will  be  the  next  nearest  lake  for  us 
to  visit  ? 

Landlady.  I  should  say  Coniston  Water,  and  there 
you  may  see  Ruskin's  house. 


146    THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD   OF  TEACHING 

Traveler.  Well,  if  that  neighborhood  has  scenery 
as  grand  as  this,  Ruskin  knew  where  he  could  study  the 
beauties  of  nature. 

Landlady.  Oh,  the  lakes  are  not  only  beautiful,  they  are 
useful,  also.  There  is  one  called  Thirlmere,  a  very  beautiful 
and  clear  lake.   It  supplies  Manchester  with  drinking  water. 

Traveler.  But  Manchester  must  be  at  least  seventy 
miles  away  ! 

Landlady.  I'm  not  good  at  figures,  but  I  know  the 
water  is  carried  to  Manchester  in  pipes. 

Traveler.  Yfakcs  out  map  and,  after  finding  Thirl- 
mere, moves  his  finger  aside^  I  see  that  Derwent  Water 
is  quite  near  Thirlmere,  and  here  is  Skiddaw  marked  to 
the  north  of  it. 

Landlady.  Some  people  think  Derwent  Water  the 
prettiest  lake.  At  all  events,  the  Derwent  River  is  the 
only  one  of  importance  in  this  district.  But  Grasmere  and 
Rydal  Water  are  really  the  most  interesting  places  to  visit. 

Traveler.    And  why  is  that  ^ 

Landlady.  Because  so  many  poets  and  authors  have 
lived  there  and  written  about  them.  You  have  heard  of 
Wordsworth  .?  The  last  years  of  his  life  were  passed  at 
"  Rydal  Mount,"  a  beautiful  house,  and  he  is  buried  in 
Grasmere  churchyard. 

Traveler's  Little  Boy.  Yes,  father.  We  have 
learned  a  good  many  of  Wordsworth's  poems  and  read 
a  good  many  more.  One  is  called  "The  Cumberland 
Beggar,"  and  another  is  "  The  Pet  Lamb."  There  are 
many  about  Duddon  River  too. 


GEOGRAPHY  I47 

Landlady.  There  's  hardly  a  rock  or  stream  or  nook 
about  this  part  which  he  did  not  visit  and  write  about. 
My  grandfather  often  met  him  out  on  his  long  tramps 
over  the  hills  and  dales.  Coleridge,  a  great  friend  of  his, 
Southey,  and  De  Ouincey  also  lived  in  this  neighborhood, 
and.  wrote  about  it. 

Little  Boy.  Oh,  dad,  I  know  something  that  Southey 
wrote.  It  was  "  The  Falls  of  Lodore."  Do  take  me  to 
see  the  falls.    They  must  be  wonderful. 

Little  Girl.  When  the  Spanish  Armada  came  to  Eng- 
land, the  people  lighted  a  beacon  fire  on  Skiddaw.  We 
read  about  it  in  a  piece  of  poetry  called  "  The  Armada," 
by  Macaulay. 

Traveler.  Well,  we  will  go  to  bed  now,  and  to-morrow 
morning  the  first  thing,  we  will  do  what  Wordsworth  did  : 
we  will  tramp  over  hill  and  dale,  and  see  all  we  can. 

Landlady.    Ah  !  that 's  if  it  does  n't  rain,  sir  ! 

Traveler.  Ha,  ha  !  That 's  a  sly  hit  at  the  climate. 
I  know  you  are  noted  for  having  the  rainiest  climate  in 
England.    What  causes  it  ? 

Landlady.  Some  say  it  is  the  moist  winds  from  the 
Atlantic. 

Traveler.  I  suppose  the  mountains  attract  the  great 
rainfall  and  cause  the  great  lakes  at  the  same  time. 

Landlady.  Well,  we  are  not  so  badly  off  as  the  people 
at  Seathwaite,  near  here.  They  say  it  rains  there  every 
day  of  the  year  but  one  ! 

Traveler.  Well,  now  to  bed,  and  let  us  all  wish  for  a 
fine  day  to-morrow. 


148      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

This  would  end  the  first  scene,  and  the  children  would 
next  proceed  on  their  "tramp,"  pretending  to  visit  the 
places  discussed  and  making  up  little  conversations  with 
the  people  they  found  there.  They  bought  picture  post- 
cards of  the  "  Lake  District,"  and  appointed  a  boy  or  girl 
to  sell  them  at  each  place  for  cardboard  coins.  Some  of 
their  remarks  were  very  apt.  For  instance,  when  they  came 
to  some  supposed  rough,  rocky  mountain  paths,  they  pre- 
tended to  find  a  primrose,  and  said:  "That  must  be 
Wordsworth's  '  Primrose  of  the  Rock.'  "  Then  they  found 
a  little  nook  (in  the  playground  which  was  now  their 
"  Cumberland  ")  with  a  violet  growing  in  it.  It  was  really 
a  rockery  which  the)-  had  made  years  before  for  their  first 
nature  study.  One  said  :  "  Oh  !  there  's  a  beautiful  water- 
fall. See  how  it  sparkles  and  foams!'-  And  another 
chimed  in,  "  Look  at  those  great  bowlders  '  fleeced  with 
moss,'  and  those  shady  trees  dipping  into  the  water!" 
"  Oh,  I  am  sure,"  added  a  third,  "  this  is  the  nook  which 
Wordsworth  wrote  of,  where  '  the  violet  of  five  summers 
reappears  and  fades  unseen  by  any  human  eye.'  " 

On  another  afternoon  they  arranged  a  most  realistic 
visit  to  the  Falls  of  Lodore,  to  take  place  in  their  play- 
time, and  prepared  for  during  their  dinner  hour.  Some 
time  before  this  they  had  dug  a  deep  trench  along  one 
side  of  their  playground  in  order  to  drain  off  the  stagnant 
water  which  interfered  with  play  and  drill.  At  the  lower 
end  of  the  trench  they  had  knocked  a  hole  in  the  boun- 
dary wall  and  inserted  a  drainpipe,  which,  when  the  trench 
was  full,  caused  a  miniature  waterfall  into  the  field  outside 


149 


GEOGRAPHY  I 5  I 

the  wall.  The  boys  dug  away  the  bank  under  the  drain- 
pipe to  emphasize  this.  But  on  the  day  of  the  great  visit 
to  the  Falls  of  Lodore  the  weather  was  cloudless  and 
there  was  every  indication  that  we  should  have  an  empty 
trench.  But  there  had  to  be  a  Falls  of  Lodore  ;  so  a 
council  was  held,  and  the  boys  overcame  the  difficulty. 
They  carried  out  an  old  blackboard,  placed  it  against  the 
wall  over  the  trench  in  a  slanting  position,  and  heaped 
o:reat  stones  all  over  it  —  to  hide  the  fact  that  it  was  a 
blackboard,  and  also  to  give  an  appearance  of  realism  to 
the  "splashing  and  dashing"  mentioned  in  the  poem. 
One  boy  filled  a  tin  bathtub  with  water.  At  the  appointed 
time,  when  the  travelers,  armed  with  the  book  containing 
Southey's  poem,  arrived  at  the  spot,  the  boy  (who  had 
filled  the  bathtub  and  raised  it  to  the  top  of  the  wall, 
where  he  sat  astride  holding  it)  slowly  tipped  it.  over,  and 
behold  !  the  Falls  of  Lodore. 

The  same  part  of  the  playground  was  admirably  suited 
to  the  purposes  of  the  older  pupils  when  playing  "  Switzer- 
land." They  amplified  the  blackboard  idea  and  carried 
out  the  top  of  a  movable  platform,  which  they  placed  slant- 
wise against  the  wall  and  styled  a  "  glacier,"  and  which 
they  climbed  with  great  difficulty  and  much  display  of 
alpenstock,  ice  ax,  rope,  and  guides.  Needless  to  say,  the 
"  guides  "  had  to  be  well  up  in  their  subjects  and  know 
the  names  and  peculiarities  of  all  the  "peaks"  of  the  play- 
ground. The  older  pupils  could  construct  really  good  and 
interesting  plays  and  did  not  make  the  textbook  source 
of  their  information  quite  so  obvious.    They  had  evidently 


152      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

learned  the  "  art  of  concealing  art."  Not  only  did  they  rig 
up  a  glacier,  but  they  named  it  and  placed  it  correctly  with 
reference  to  other  physical  features.  They  even  had  ad- 
ventures on  it.  Falling  over  the  edge  was  tumbling  into 
a  crevasse.  One  of  their  number  fell  over,  and  the  guides 
and  others  performed  a  gallant  rescue.  The  Swiss  game 
was  not  complete  without  an  avalanche,  which  came  while 
the  tourists  (who  were  the  life  of  the  game)  were  sleep- 
ing in  a  hillside  cottage.  Some  one  who  possessed  a 
carved  wooden  model  of  a  Swiss  cottage  brought  it  to 
school.  After  that  the  "cottage"  was  always  the  model 
on  a  projecting  table  under  which  the  inmates  sat.  The 
Swiss  girls  (having  practiced  considerably  by  themselves) 
treated  us  to  Swiss  "  jodeling."  Herds  of  cows  and  goats 
were  driven  along,  and  the  fact  elicited  from  the  peasants 
that  the  milk  was  to  be  condensed  and  sent  to  England 
—  probably  retailed  in  our  own  town.  Samples  of  Swiss 
milk  chocolate  were  taken  (and  evidently  found  up  to  par !) 
and  questions  asked  as  to  the  size,  government,  education, 
language,  and  history  of  Switzerland. 

Of  course  the  older  girls  could  easily  arrange  "properties" 
for  this  game,  and  they  were  always  giving  us  little  sur- 
prises. On  one  occasion  it  was  a  nice  little  dairy  that 
they  had  rigged  up,  with  clean-scrubbed,  red  flowerpots 
for  dairy  pans.  On  another  occasion  it  was  the  decoration 
of  the  Swass  cottage  with  gentians  and  "edelweiss"  (make- 
believe,  of  course).  The  boys  made  up  a  St.  Bernard 
game  with  two  of  their  number  as  St.  Bernard  dogs  with 
little  tin  pails  strapped  in  front  of  them.    It  was  noticeable 


GEOGRAPHY  153 

that  they  always  exhausted  every  available  authority  in  these 
geography  games,  and,  as  they  themselves  used  to  say,  "  If 
we  went  over  to  those  countries,  we  should  not  feel  at  all 
strange  now  ;  we  should  know  what  to  look  for." 

When  we  played  "  France"  the  girls  provided  a  little 
surprise.  Of  course,  being  quite  a  rural  school  in  an  agri- 
cultural district,  French  was  not  a  subject  in  our  curricu- 
lum. But  the  girls  had  been  much  interested  in  the  little 
lessons  in  French  given  in  the  "Children's  Encyclopedia," 
and  they  surprised  us  with  a  few  little  phrases  such  as  : 
oni,  madame ;  an  rcvoir;  ban  jour,  and  others  relating  to 
the  voyage,  the  weather,  etc.,  all  of  which  I  welcomed  as 
stimulating  ambition  and  a  step  on  the  right  road. 

Canada  was  found  to  be  particularly  well  adapted  to 
form  the  subject  of  a  play  of  this  kind,  and  several  games 
were  made  up  by  the  older  pupils  on  the  different  parts 
of  the  Dominion.  The  important  feature  was  that  the 
pupils  avoided  monotony  by  not  treating  any  two  districts 
quite  alike. 

In  their  first  Canadian  game  they  dealt  with  the  "lum- 
bering" district,  some  of  them  impersonating  animals, 
set^ders,  and  Indians.  The  latter  wore  striped  blankets, 
rugs,  or  tablecloths  to  disting-uish  them  from  settlers  and 
had  fearful  and  wonderful  headdresses  made  of  feathers 
sewed  on  wide  tape.  Sometimes  they  even  took  the  trouble 
to  paint  their  faces.  We  possessed  one  pair  of  real  Indian 
shoes  decorated  with  the  peculiar  colored  grasswork  of 
the  North  American  Indian,  which  were  worn  by  the  most 
important  "  chief."    The  Indians  would  hunt  the  beaver, 


154      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

sometimes  shooting  but  more  often  trapping  them.  They 
were  made  to  go  on  the  "warpath,"  uttering  strange  whoops 
and  shrieks  and  waving  tomahawks  and  scalping  knives 
(cut  from  stiff  cardboard).  They  would  then  make  their 
exit,  and  the  lumbermen  would  enter.  A  small  tree  would 
be  brought  into  school  and  fixed  upright  in  a  tub.  Then 
the  lumbermen  would  appear  and  mark  out  trees  to  be  cut. 
The  trees  would  be  chopped  down,  and,  in  conversation, 
the  men  would  let  us  know  that  the  trees  were  being  cut, 
but  could  not  be  floated  down  the  river  until  the  ' '  freshets 
started.  These,  they  explained,  were  sudden  risings  of  the 
rivers  which  occurred  very  quickly  in  the  springtime,  owing 
to  the  sudden  thawing  of  the  snow  and  ice.  The  ice  was 
supposed  to  break  up,  and  the  men  would  pretend  to  push 
the  logs  into  the  water.  This  was  great  fun,  for  one  boy 
brought  some  long  pieces  of  chains,  and  we  pretended  to 
throw  the  logs  into  the  stream  and  form  rafts.  Then  the 
boys  gave  us  a  realistic  bit  of  acting,  jumping  on  the 
rafts  and  guiding  them  along  by  pushing  the  river  bank 
(floor !)  with  poles.  They  really  did  manage  to  slide  their 
logs  along,  much  to  the  joy  of  the  enthusiastic  onlookers. 
Then  amid  tense  excitement  they  made  their  logs  jam, 
and  the  men  pretended  to  break  the  ice.  Some  of  their 
number  were  "  injured  "  at  this  point  and  had  to  receive 
"  first  aid  "  from  their  companions.  They  would  bring  out 
in  their  dialogue  the  names  of  the  rivers,  as  they  floated 
down  them,  and  of  the  ports  to  which  they  would  presently 
come.  The  logs  would  be  sawed  into  "deals"  and  shipped, 
the   boys   who   were   lumbermen   quickly   becoming   men 


c;p:o(;rapii  V  157 

working  the  steam  saws  at  Ottawa.  While  the  men  were 
chopping  down  the  trees,  in  the  "  winter  "  scene,  traders 
would  come  and  bargain  for  the  wood.  The  talk  would 
take  place  in  the  "shanty,"  rigged  up  with  easels,  black- 
boards, and  benches.  Then  other  boys  dressed  as  Indians 
would  steal  in  and  listen  outside  the  shanty.  They  would 
offer  skins  to  the  lumbermen  and  exchange  them  for  corn, 
tobacco,  beads,  and  whisky.  Some  of  the  rougher  lumber- 
men would  pretend  to  lie  in  wait  for  a  trader  to  rob  and 
kill  him  ;  after  a  scuffle  he  would  escape  on  his  rough 
horse.  While  this  was  going  on  the  Indians  would  loot 
the  shanty  and  steal  away. 

What  always  struck  me  most  forcibly  was  the  fact  that 
nothing  —  the  amount  of  preparation,  the  arrangement  of 
multitudinous  details,  the  memorizing  of  long  parts,  the 
making  of  copious  notes  —  ever  seemed  to  be  looked  upon 
as  the  least  trouble.  The  truth  was  that  all  these  things  con- 
stituted healthy  brain  and  bodily  activity  for  normal  children 
and  developed  them  equally  in  all  directions.  It  seems  to 
me  that  it  is  only  when  the  balance  of  nature  is  upset  that 
boredom,  fag,  and  "it 's-too-much-trouble-itis "  sets  in.  And 
even  adults  never  confess  to  weariness  when  they  want  to 
do  anything  :  pleasure  outbalances  the  other  sensations. 

When  Australia  was  to  be  the  subject  of  the  play,  the 
form  was  again  slightly  altered.  This  time  it  was  the  story 
of  an  emigrant.  The  emigrant's  father  and  mother,  an 
aged  couple,  were  discovered  sitting  by  the  fire  with  their 
two  sons.  From  their  conversation  it  was  made  clear  that 
the  elder  son  was  off  to  Australia  on  the  morrow.    The 


158      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

aged  father  said  :  "So  you  're  off,  my  lad,  to-morrow, 
thirteen  thousand  miles  —  't  is  a  long  way  to  sail !  And 
do  ye  tell  me,  lad,  that  you  '11  be  right  round  t'  other  side 
of  the  world,  with  your  feet  pointing  toward  ours  ?  How^- 
ever  will  ye  keep  from  falling  off  ?  " 

The  mother  chimed  in  here  with:  "Oh,  dear!  Oh, 
dear  !  To  think  I  brought  ye  up  for  this  —  to  go  walking 
around  on  your  head  !  "  The  two  sons  then  explained 
everything  as  well  as  they  could  —  about  the  world  being 
round  and  revolving  on  its  axis,  and  why  people  neither 
stand  on  their  heads  nor  fly  off  into  space.  The  second 
scene  showed  the  elder  son  leaving  Southampton,  while 
his  parents  and  brother  waved  him  a  tearful  farewell.  The 
chorus  described  Southampton  and  also  the  journey,  as 
the  "  ship  "  slowly  proceeded  down  the  room.  Maps  were 
produced  here  —  on  the  children's  own  initiative  —  and  the 
places  stopped  at,  as  well  as  the  port  where  the  emigrant 
was  to  land,  were  correctly  named  and  described.  Arriving 
in  the  new  country,  the  settler  pretended  to  hunt  for  work. 
He  got  addresses  of  farmers  who  w^anted  hands  from  a 
boy  who  represented  an  agent.  Calling  on  the  first  farmer, 
he  asked  for  work. 

Farmer.    Where  do  you  come  from  .? 

Emigrant.    Oh,  from  Sussex. 

Farmer.  Ah  !  you  are  just  the  lad  for  me.  Do  you 
know  anything  about  sheep  ? 

Emigran'j\  Why,  yes  !  The  South  Downs  are  noted 
for  them. 


GEOGRAPIIV  159 

Farmer.  Then  perhaps  you  can  shoot  a  rabbit  or  two  ! 
I  wish  you  'd  help  me  to  get  rid  of  a  few.  I  am  fairly 
overrun  with  them. 

Emigrant.  Ah!  many 's  the  young  wild  rabbit  I've 
brought  back  for  supper  at  home  in  Sussex. 

In  conversation  like  this  the  "farmer"  engaged  the 
"emigrant,"  and  the  conditions,  climate,  flora,  fauna, 
etc.,  of  the  district  were  pointed  out  to  him. 

Another  scene  showed  the  emigrant,  after  several  years 
had  elapsed,  with  a  sheep  farm  of  his  ow^n.  His  "brother" 
from  Sussex  arrives  on  the  scene,  having  come  out  to  assist 
him.  On  his  first  day  the  emigrant  and  his  brother  take 
a  ride  round  part  of  the  farm  (splendid  opportunity  to  ride 
on  another  boy's  back  !),  and  we  learn  a  little  more,  for  as 
they  ride  they  converse. 

Visitor,    ^\l"ly,  \'ou  seem  to  have  no  grass  here. 

Emigrant.  Ah,  we  are  having  a  long,  dry  season,  and 
it  has  been  long  enough  to  make  every  blade  of  grass  dry 
up  and  wither  away. 

Visitor.  Then  how  do  you  feed  your  hundreds  of 
sheep  ? 

Emigrant.  Oh,  they  eat  those  scrubby-looking  desert 
shrubs  that  even  the  drought  cannot  kill.  It  is  astonishing 
how  nature  provides  those  plants  with  the  means  to  resist 
the  dry  weather  and  burning  heat. 

Visitor.  You  appear  to  be  glad  of  rain  and  do  not  call 
rainy  weather  "bad  weather"  as  we  often  do  in  England. 


l6o      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Emigrant.  Ah  !  you  should  see  it  when  it  docs  rain. 
Torrents  —  bucketsful !  Rivers  overflowing — floods  every- 
where —  sheep  drowned  !  It  is  a  treat  to  stand  out  and 
soak  in  it. 

Visitor.    Those  are  fine  trees.    What  are  they } 

Emigrant.  Eucalyptus,  or  gum  trees.  Some  of  those 
are  two  hundred  fifty  feet  high  and  as  much  as  twenty 
feet  round  the  trunk.  Those  pretty  trees  near  the  house 
are  acacias,  or  w^attles.  The  eucalyptus  trees  look  strange 
to  you  because  their  leaves  are  vertical  instead  of  paral- 
lel to  the  ground,  and  they  shed  their  bark  instead  of 
their  leaves. 

V^isiTOK.  1  know  why  tlieir  leaves  are  twisted  so.  It  is 
to  present  the  smallest  surface  to  tlie  scorching  sun,  other- 
wise the  leaves  would  be  burnt  up  and  the  tree  would  die. 
There  are  dwarf  beans  which  grow  in  our  gardens  at  home 
in  Sussex  that  turn  their  leaves  so  during  the  hottest  part 
of  the  day  for  the  same  reason. 

Emigrant.  I  fancy  there  's  another  reason.  Leaves  so 
turned  allow  every  drop  of  rain  to  fall  close  to  the  tree 
and  keep  none  from  the  ground.  Besides,  the  leaves  in 
that  position  ofler  no  lodging  place  for  dust,  which  clogs 
the  pores  of  leaves,  and  we  sometimes  have  dreadful  sand- 
laden  winds,  brickdust  winds  they  are  called. 

Visitor.  You  have  some  queer  animals  about ;  what- 
ever is  that  creature .? 

Emigrant.  Oh,  our  native  animals  are  queer,  and,  like 
the  native  plants,  of  no  use  to  man.  That 's  a  kangaroo 
with  a  young  kangaroo   in  its  pouch.     I  '11  show  you  a 


GEOGRArilV  l6l 

platypus  —  an  animal  which  has  feet  and  bill  like  a  duck 
and  which  lays  eggs.  We  have  beautiful  birds  —  one  is  the 
lyre  bird  —  but  you  will  not  hear  the  song  birds  of  old 
England,  What  would  n't  I  give  to  hear  a  missel  thrush 
sing  again ! 

Visitor.  Well,  at  any  rate,  I  see  one  familiar  friend 
here ! 

Emigrant.    Who  's  that  ^ 

Visitor.    The  Scotch  thistle. 

Emigrant.  Yes,  however  it  got  here,  it  means  to  stay. 
The  government  is  spending  pots  of  money  in  trying  to 
get  rid  of  it.  Probably  it  came  over  with  the  Scotch  cattle 
and  won't  go  until  they  do  ! 

Visitor.  There  go  more  rabbits  !  Upon  my  word  the 
whole  place  is  alive  with  them. 

Emigrant.  Yes,  in  ten  years  they  did  $15,000,000 
worth  of  damage  in  Victoria,  and  the  sparrows  are  nearly 
as  bad.  But  we  send  millions  of  rabbit  skins  to  England 
to  be  used  in  making  felt  hats  and  furs. 

Visitor.  When  I  came  to  the  railway  terminus  on  my 
way  to  Southampton  to  join  the  ship,  I  saw  a  lot  of  frozen 
sheep  sewed  up  in  white  cloths  ready  to  be  put  in  the  train 
for  London.  The  cloths  were  stamped  with  the  name 
''  Barnes  &  Downey." 

Emigrant.  Well,  I  never!  That's  the  name  of  the 
firm  to  which  I  send  my  sheep.  They  are  both  Sussex 
men,  and  it  so  happens  that  I  expect  them  to-day.  There 's 
a  trap  driving  up  to  the  gate  of  our  farmhouse  now.  You 
will  soon  meet  an  Englishman. 


l62      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

{They  trot  back  to  the  end  of  the  room,  e ailed  tJie  farni- 
Jioiise.  Barnes  and  Downey  drive  in,  seated  in  a 
soapbox  "  buggy y  They  shake  hands  witJi  the  Emi- 
grant and  his  Brother] 

Visitor.  Why,  I  remember  )ou  !  Are  n't  )ou  old 
Teddie  Barnes,  who  went  to  school  with  me,  and  used  to 
help  us  act  our  lessons  so  well  ? 

Barnes.  Oh,  yes  !  But  you  mustn't  call  me  that  now, 
you  know,  for  I  've  grown  to  be  a  man. 

Visitor.  [Langhijig]  Ah,  well,  I  'd  like  to  make  closer 
acquaintance  with  you  ! 

Downey.  Well,  what  haYc  we  for  dinner  to-day  — 
sheep,  mutton,  ram,  or  lamb  .? 

Emigrant.  ['To  younger  Brother]  That's  an  old  joke 
of  ours,  but  it  is  pretty  nearly  true  ! 

Visitor.  Well,  in  old  England  it  seems  to  be  mutton 
and  beef,  beef  and  mutton. 

Then,  in  course  of  conversation,  it  is  shown  that  the 
"emigrant,"  who  is  now  called  a  "squatter,"  owns  ten 
thousand  sheep,  and  as  the  pasturage  is  scantier  than  in 
England,  this  means  many  thousands  of  acres  of  land. 
The  "  shepherds  "  are  mounted  men  who  spend  all  day  in 
the  saddle.  The  "agents"  tell  of  the  hundreds  of  frozen 
sheep  and  bales  of  wool  which  pass  through  their  hands 
yearly.  So  the  game  ends  for  the  day,  to  be  varied  on 
another  occasion  by  taking  the  divisions  of  Australia  sep- 
arately and  showing,  among  other  things,  the  famous 
"Broken   Hill"   silver  mine. 


GEOGRAPHY  163 

Just  as  the  children  were  interested  in  playing  their 
''Australia"  games  a  friend  visited  the  school,  fresh  from 
a  tour  in  New  Zealand.  Such  an  attentive  audience  surely 
never  listened  to  geographical  lecturer  before !  Those 
eager  children  had  quickly  grasped  the  fact  that  there 
was  "copy"  —  otherwise  games  —  to  be  secured,  and  no 
sooner  was  the  visitor's  back  turned  than  they  were  busy 
concocting  a  "New  Zealand"  game.  They  planned  out 
three  scenes,  namely : 

1 .  New  Zealand  and  visit  of  Captain  Cook  ;  mur- 
der of  Captain  Cook  ;  cannibals  eating  human  flesh  ; 
introduction  of  pigs  ;  natives  converted  from  canni- 
balistic tastes,  owing  to  superior  flavor  (!)  of  pigs. 

2.  Early  settlers  civilizing  the  natives. 

3.  Present-day  conditions  ;  sheep  farms  ;  descrip- 
tion of  flora  and  fauna  ;  frozen-meat  exports  ;  native 
customs  as  shown  by  funeral  ceremony  of  Maoris,  in- 
cluding Maori  "crying  lady"  (who  shed  tears  from  a 
small  bottle  of  water  hidden  in  a  large  handkerchief). 

This  game  included  some  fine  realistic  effects,  for  one 
boy  brought  a  tame  jackdaw  which  did  duty  for  the 
quaint  native  wingless  bird,  the  apteryx.  As  a  grand  finale 
the  boys  constructed  a  model  volcano,  which  "  worked  " 
satisfactorily  with  the  aid  of  a  heap  of  sand  and  some 
fireworks. 

New  Zealand  would  not  have  been  complete  without 
some  references  to  hot  springs  and  mud  lakes.  The  way 
the   boys   introduced   them   was   funnv.     The\'   supposed 


164      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

themselves  to  be  travelers  mounted  on  ponies,  and  rode 
up  and  down  the  room,  pointing  out  the  scenery  in  this  fash- 
ion :  ' '  What  a  splendid  bit  of  scener}' !  What  is  that  snow- 
covered  mountain?"    "Oh,  that  is  Mount  Cook,  named 

after  Captain  Cook,  who Oh  —  h  —  h  !  "    Here  the 

"pony"  reared  suddenly,  almost  throwing  the  boy  off  its 
back,  and  refused  to  go  forward.  Its  rider  tried  to  force 
it  on.  The  other  riders  dismounted  and  ran  toward  him. 
One  of  their  number  fell  prone  on  the  floor  and  appeared 
to  struggle,  as  though  in  the  water.  "  Help,  help,  drag 
me  out!"  he  yelled.  "What  is  it  .^  "  they  all  cried,  as 
they  pulled  him  out.  "A  mud  lake,  I  expect,"  answered 
the  victim.  ''  What  was  it  like  ?  "  they  all  asked.  "  Hot," 
replied  the  muddy  one;  "/should  have  been  cooked  if 
I  had  stayed  in  there  long."  The  whole -game,  in  fact, 
teemed  with  incidents  extremely  funny  to  an  adult  spec- 
tator (although  perfectly  serious  so  far  as  the  pupils  were 
concerned).  For  instance,  when  "  Captain  Cook "  was 
overwhelmed  by  the  "cannibals"  and  just  about  to  die,  he 
called  out  to  his  men  :  "  Escape  for  your  lives,  men  !  You 
can  do  me  no  good.  Farewell  !  Tell  them  in  England 
that  I  died  a  7ioblc  man  .''  "  As  if  Captain  Cook  would 
have  found  time  to  brag,  or  that  there  could  be  anything 
noble  in  being  ignominiously  eaten  by  degraded  canni- 
bals !  Not  that  this  was  in  itself  funny ;  it  was  the  melo- 
dramatic strut  and  pose  of  the  juvenile  "Cook"  which 
almost  convulsed  one. 

The  "  savages  "  were  made  to  speak  a  kind  of  broken 
English,  interspersed  with   squeaks  and   "  wows."    They 


GEOGRAPHY  165 

devoured  "  human  "  arms  made  of  brown  paper,  stuffed. 
When  persuaded  to  abstain  from  such  dehcacies,  in  favor 
of  stuffed  brown -paper  pig,  they  had  an  eye  to  the 
main  chance,  for  they  said:  "No  let  us  eatee  mans  any 
more.  We  catchee  mans  and  eatee  them.  But  p'r'aps  some 
day  mans  catchee  us  and  eatee  ?is.  Not  safe.  Better  all 
eatee  pig ! " 

Very  comical,  too,  was  the  boys'  attempt  to  show  how 
natives  were  civilized.  They  pretended  to  chop  down  trees 
for  wood  with  which  to  build  houses.  The  "natives"  gath- 
ered round  and  watched  them  from  a  distance.  Soon  the 
"setders"  beckoned  to  the  natives  and  held  out  colored 
cloth  and  strings  of  beads,  etc.  The  natives  pressed  for- 
ward, saying,  "  Me .?  Me  .?  "  and  holding  out  their  hands. 
The  settlers  handed  them  the  axes  and  pointed  to  the 
trees,  making  signs  to  them  to  "chop-chop,"  and  then  point- 
ing to  the  beads,  etc.  But  the  savages,  taking  the  axes, 
turned  to  attack  the  settlers,  who,  after  a  struggle,  drove 
them  back  and  once  more  showed  them  what  they  wanted 
them  to  do  before  they  could  have  the  beads.  At  last  they 
made  them  do  the  work  and  duly  rewarded  them.  Observe 
that  the  childish  idea  of  civilizing  was  by  means  of  teach- 
ing handicraft,  or,  shall  we  say,  of  utilizing  handicraft  to 
the  advantage  of  the  more  civilized. 

The  funeral  ceremony  of  the  native  Maoris  had  been 
described  at  length  by  our  visitor,  but  much  had  been  left 
to  the  imagination,  as,  for  instance,  the  spoken  words. 
The  boys  enacting  the  scene  blacked  their  faces  —  shall 
I  confess  it }  —  bv  rubbing  their  hands  up  the  chimney. 


1 66      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

They  laid  the  dead  ''chief"  on  a  bench  and  then  ceremoni- 
ously brought  mats  instead  of  wreaths,  —  again  I  hesitate, 
but  truth  will  out,  —  the  school  doormats,  which  they  placed 
over  the  chief !  (I  must  remark  that  the  mats  were  well 
shaken.)  They  laid  the  "spear"  of  the  dead  chief  be- 
side him.  The  head  of  this  spear  was  a  hollow  beef 
bone,  to  remind  us  that  there  is  a  lack  of  minerals  in 
New  Zealand,  and  that  the  cannibals  utilized  human  bones 
instead.  The  children  also  brought  to  school  other  small 
bones,  which  they  pretended  were  native  needles,  fish- 
hooks, and  other  things  formed  from  human  bones.  From 
the  "Children's  Encyclopaedia"  they  found  how  to  cut 
out  boomerangs.  Imagine  their  joy  on  discovering  a  real 
boomerang  in  our  Free  Museum  ! 

The  part  which  taxed  their  ingenuity  considerably  was 
reached  when  the  chiefs  attending  the  funeral  had  to 
speak.  The  "crying  lady"  (albeit  a  boy!)  could  perform 
her  part  to  a  nicety,  so  she  was  told  to  howl  loudly  when- 
ever the  chieftains  failed  for  lack  of  words.  What  they 
did  say,  I  remember,  was  something  like  this  : 

First  Cmief.    Oh,  he  was  brave  and  he  was  noble  ! 
Second  Chief.    He  had  the  heart  of  a  lion. 
Third  Chief.    And  the  legs  of  a  fox  ! 
Fourth  Chief.    He  had  the  appetite  of  an  ostrich. 
First  Chief.    He  slew  many  enemies. 
Second  Chief.    Yea,  he  slew  his  thousands ! 
Third  Chief.    He  could  throw  the  boomerang. 
Fourth  Chief.    He  could  climb  the  gum  trees. 


GEOGRAPHY  16/ 

All  this  was  punctuated  by  solemn  marches  to  and  fro, 
while  spears  were  rattled  on  the  ground  at  intervals,  and 
the  ''  crying  lady  "  howled  in  the  pauses. 

Then  the  chiefs  had  a  feast  cooked  in  the  native  way, 
as  described  to  them  by  the  visitor. 

When  w^e  had  finished  our  "  New  Zealand  "  games  I 
realized  that,  personally,  I  knew  far  more  of  that  place 
than  I  had  ever  known  before.  Of  course  names  of  places 
had  been  duly  noted,  as  well  as  manners,  customs,  and  his- 
tory. And  while  mentioning  history,  it  may  interest  my 
readers  to  know  that  our  "  Captain  Cook  "  managed  to 
introduce,  in  an  ingenious  way,  the  history  of  the  places 
he  explored.  In  calling  at  Tasmania  he  said  :  "  Oh,  this 
island  was  discovered  by  the  Dutch.  I  remember  that 
Tasman  called  here.  He  named  it  Van  Diemen's  Land." 
And  when  he  "sighted"  the  next  land,  he  said:  "This 
must  be  the  land  discovered  by  those  clever  Dutchmen 
again.  They  called  it  New  Zealand,  after  their  home." 
All  this  was  brought  out  in  a  conversational  way  by  the 
"  Captain"  and  his  "  First  Mate." 

Occasionally,  to  be  quite  sure  that  all  they  said  was 
understood,  the  "  producers  "  of  the  play  would  call  upon 
the  chorus  to  "  come  out  and  see  if  you  can  go  through 
our  parts." 

Co?i/d  ihGy  ?  It  was  just  a  case  of  rushing  for  the  chief 
parts,  regardless  of  the  difficulties.  Of  course  this  only 
spurred  the  older  pupils  on  to  make  their  parts  fuller  and 
more  nearly  perfect,  and  in  this  way  a  healthy  rivalry  was 
promoted  between  the  different  classes. 


l68      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Frequently,  too,  the  older  pupils  would  write  out  in 
their  recreation  time  little  geography  plays,  abridged  and 
adapted  from  their  own  plays,  for  the  lower-class  pupils. 
I  would  allow  them  to  conduct  these, —  quite  by  themselves, 
—  and  so  a  new  school  "tone"  or  tradition  was  formed. 
I  would  often  hear  the  younger  pupils  saying,  "When  I 
get  up  in  the  '  big  room  '  I  am  going  to  be  Captain  Cook, 
and  you  can  be  a  cannibal,"  and  such  things. 

In  my  opinion,  the  best  result  of  this  method  of  study- 
ing geography  was  the  way  in  which  the  pupils  —  left  to 
themselves  —  connected  geography  and  history  details  with 
real  persons  and  real  deeds.  When  they  studied  Africa, 
they  played  games  about  Livingstone  and  other  explorers, 
and  in  this  way  gradually  unfolded  the  history  and  geog- 
raphy of  Africa, 


CHAPTER   IX 
ARITHMETIC  AND   COMPOSITION 

ARITHMETIC  may  become  a  delightful  subject  when 
^  taught  largely  by  means  of  plays.  We  first  made 
our  arithmetic  games  correlate  with  the  week's  nature 
study,  taking  care  that  they  did  not  become  haphazard 
and  purposeless.  For  instance,  it  is  quite  possible,  when 
the  weekly  nature  lesson  happens  to  be  on  "  acorns  and 
oak  trees  "  and  the  arithmetic  lesson  deals  with  the  "  six 
times  table,"  to  blend  the  two  into  a  game  rather  than 
to  play  some  purposeless  game  with  acorns  alone.  The 
teacher  may  be  quite  methodical  —  as  it  behooves  one  to 
be  in  a  subject  like  arithmetic  —  and  yet,  with  the  art  of 
concealing  art,  she  may  prevent  her  method  from  obtrud- 
ing itself  upon  the  pupils'  mental  vision. 

In  a  subject  like  arithmetic  it  is  necessary  that  the 
teacher  should  "lead"  a  little  more  than  in  other  subjects. 
From  its  very  nature  it  is  evident  that  the  children  cannot 
be  allowed  a  perfectly  free  hand,  or  chaos  would  result. 
But  after  a  good  beginning  has  been  made,  they  may  quite 
safely  be  allowed  to  help  and  suggest  in  the  preparation 
of  plays  almost  as  much  as  in  such  subjects  as  geography 
and  history.    Here  is  an  example  of  a  simple  game  which 

Grade  I  children  helped  to  "  make  up  "  : 

169 


I/O    THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

Six  boys  pretended  to  be  oak  trees.  They  filled  their 
pockets  and  hands  with  acorns.  They  pretended  that  their 
outstretched  arms  were  branches.  Another  boy  represented 
the  north  wind,  and  ran  round  puffing  and  shaking  the 
"trees."  Down  fell  the  acorns  !  Harr)^  pretended  to  be  a 
little  boy  with  a  basket  gathering  acorns.  Two  other  boys 
were  pigs  and  ate  up  the  acorns  which  were  left.  They 
merely  pretended  to  eat,  and  in  reality  pocketed  them. 

"  How  many  have  you  eaten  .?  "  asked  the  teacher. 

The  class  wTote  down  the  answers  of  both  boys. 

"  How  many  have  you,  Harry  ?  " 

Harry  duly  counted  and  his  answer  was  jotted  down. 

"  Now,  how  many  are  left  on  the  trees  ? " 

This  was  noted,  too. 
Then,  if  Harry  gathered  so  many,  and  the  pigs  ate  a 
total  of  so  many,  and  so  many  were  left  on  the  trees,  how 
many  acorns  were  there  at  first  ?  ■  How  man)^  fell  from  the 
tree  ?  "  etc. 

Then  all  the  class  worked  out  the  answers  and  wrote 
down  the  sums  in  the  correct  form. 

Tables  can  easily  be  learned  when  "  played "  with 
bunches  of  snowdrops  or  other  flowers.  A  little  girl  sell- 
ing snowdrops  at  so  much  a  bunch  with  so  many  in  each 
bunch  —  say  six  (the  children  having  made  up  one  bunch 
each)  —  may  teach  her  companions  the  "  six  times  table  " 
unconsciously. 

Girl,  Buy  my  snowdrops  to-day,  lady  ?  Only  one  cent 
a  bunch  ! 


ARITHMETIC  AND   COMPOSITION  171 

Lady.    How  many  are  there  in  a  bunch  ? 
Girl.    Six_,  lady. 

Lady.  Then  I  will  have  two  bunches  and  that  will  make 
twelve  snowdrops. 

Enter  Mother  ivitJi  three  little  Children 

Girl.  Snowdrops,  lady  1  Only  one  cent  for  a  bunch 
of  six  ! 

Mother.  Oh,  how  pretty  they  look  !  Yes,  I  will  buy 
a  litde  nosegay  for  each  of  my  three  children.  How  many 
snowdrops  shall  we  have  altogether  then  } 

Children.    Three  sixes  — that  will  be  eighteen. 

Mother.    And  if  I  have  a  bunch,  too  t 

Children.  Four  sixes  !  Why,  that  will  be  twenty-four. 
[Girl  goes  to  greengroeer  s  sJiop  kept  by  small  Boy] 

Girl.  Can  you  take  some  of  my  snowdrops  to-day,  sir  } 
You  can  have  them  at  five  bunches  for  four  cents  —  six 
in  a  bunch. 

Boy.  Yes,  I  '11  have  four  cents'  worth.  Looks  a  small 
lot  for  thirty  snowdrops,  does  n't  it  ? 

Girl.    You  can  count  them,  sir.    [  Waits']  All  correct } 

Boy.  If  I  had  six  bunches,  it  would  n't  look  much  more, 
and  yet  there  would  be  —  let 's  see  —  thirty-six  flowers. 

And  so  on,  varying  the  conversations  until  the  table  is 
complete.  The  same  game  may  supply  a  good  mental 
arithmetic  lesson  in  dealing  with  short  money  sums. 

We  all  know  how,  as  children,  we  delighted  in  playing 
with  dough  or  putty.    Acting  on  this  knowledge,  I  always 


1/2      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

taught  the  earhest  lessons  of  arithmetic  with  the  aid  of 
some  flour  and  water  dough.  With  this  children  can  play 
at  making  little  loaves.  It  is  not  difficult  for  a  child  to 
master  the  fact  that  "ten  units  equal  one  ten,"  when  he 
has  made  ten  little  dough  loaves  out  of  a  piece  of  dough 
the  same  size  as  one  big  loaf.  He  soon  learns  addition 
and  subtraction  if  he  collects  all  the  "little  loaves"  and 
makes  one  big  loaf  out  of  every  ten  small  ones,  for  he 
sees  the  "answer"  before  him  in  the  concrete. 

The  next  game  naturally  suggests  itself,  namely,  play- 
ing store.  Our  first  store  was  a  dry-goods  shop,  and  I 
left  the  girls  to  prepare  the  details.  They  threw  a  great 
deal  of  enthusiasm  and  energy  into  their  work  and  pre- 
pared a  game  which  interested  all  of  us  for  several  lessons. 
They  made  cabinets  and  chests  of  drawers  with  the  aid  of 
cardboard  boxes,  using  brass  buttons  for  handles  and  mak- 
ing the  drawers  so  that  they  could  be  pulled  in  and  out. 
Fathers  and  brothers  became  interested  and  sent  worn-out 
silk  ties  and  frayed  collars  for  the  "  Gendemen's  Depart- 
ment." Mothers  sent  treasures  in  the  shape  of  any  small 
garments,  now  out  of  use  —  all  washed  clean  —  for  the 
Ready-made  Department. "  One  of  the  older  girls  achieved 
a  triumph,  for  she  spent  several  evenings  plaiting  raffia  or 
mat  (such  as  is  used  in  tying  up  lettuce)  in  a  good  imitation 
of  straw  plait.  The  "plaits,"  when  sewed  together,  made 
splendid  French  creations  in  dolls'  hats,  especially  when 
plumed  with  chickens'  feathers.  Later  she  became  more 
ambitious  and  made  hats  large  enough  for  children  to  wear. 
These  the  "mothers,"  who  were  prospective  purchasers, 


ARITHMETIC  AND  COMPOSITION  1/3 

tried  on  their  "'  children's  "  heads  and  bargained  for.  The 
saleswomen  displayed  the  charms  of  the  hats,  and  the 
cashier  at  the  desk  took  the  money  and  gave  change 
—  using  cardboard  coins,  of  course.  A  feature  of  this 
game  was  the  set  of  real  billheads,  such  as  are  used 
by  real  stores,  which  were  supplied  me  by  a  well-known 
firm  for  advertisement. 

From  some  source  or  other  the  children  procured  the 
long  strips  of  white  and  colored  paper  which  paper  hangers 
cut  off  wall  paper,  called  trimmings.  These  they  made  up 
into  neat  rolls  and  styled  ribbons  or  tapes.  One  girl  care- 
fully cut  out  white  paper  "  embroidery  "  by  folding  the 
strips  several  times  and  then  cutting  nicks  and  curves 
which,  when  the  paper  was  unfolded,  showed  an  imitation 
of  a  lace  pattern.  Others  begged  from  the  dry-goods 
stores  the  ribbon  rolls  with  white  paper  interlinings  (the 
paper  which  is  rolled  up  with  the  ribbons  on  the  roll)  of 
various  widths.  The  clerks  in  the  stores,  sympathizing 
with  the  object  for  which  the  rolls  were  intended,  kindly 
saved  both  paper  and  rolls  for  the  children,  who  colored 
these  "  ribbons "  by  means  of  crayon  and  paint.  The 
object  of  all  this  trouble,  they  explained  to  me,  was  to 
enable  them  to  ask  for  various  colors  and  lengths,  and  be 
served  properly  without  too  much  make-believe.  When 
real  ribbon  was  used,  it  could  not  be  cut  and  then  used 
again.  With  paper  an  exact  length  could  be  measured, 
cut,  and  taken  away.  A  yard  measure  was  fixed  on 
the  counter  (desk)  by  means  of  drawing  pins,  and  by  its 
aid  the  children  mastered  the  diflficulties  of  yards,  halves. 


174      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

quarters,  and  eighths.  They  received  practice  in  calculat- 
ing the  prices  of  different  lengths  at  so  much  per  yard, 
in  making  out  the  bills  correctly,  and  in  giving  the  correct 
"  change." 

To  add  the  necessary  touch  of  realism  the  girls  borrowed 
the  school  screen  (an  old  four-fold  one),  so  that  they  could 
have  a  proper  door  to  open  and  shut.  From  the  top  corner 
of  this  door  they  hung  a  hand  bell  on  string,  so  that 
each  "  customer's  "  arrival  was  duly  announced  by  the 
tinkling  of  the  bell,  and  everything  was  quite  proper  and 
"  shoppy."  I  hardly  need  say  that,  since  all  this  took  place 
immediately  in  front  of  the  class,  there  was  no  need  for 
the  teacher  to  tell  the  children  to  "  pay  attention,"  nor 
did  she  need  to  have  any  fears  that  the  class  was  not  thor- 
oughly keen  about  adding  up  the  various  sums  when  they 
paid  for  their  "  goods."  The  pupils  would  not  have  been 
real  children  if  they  had  not  been  desperately  anxious  to 
catch  the  cashier  giving  the  wTong  change. 

A  miniature  post  office,  with  tiny  note  paper  and  envel- 
opes, stamps,  telegram  forms,  and  postal  orders,  gave  rise 
to  another  game,  w^hich  combined  the  writing  of  letters 
(composition),  directing  of  envelopes,  a  little  geography  in 
the  correct  placing  of  the  various  towns,  and  arithmetic. 

Land  measuring  with  a  real  chain  made  a  good  game 
for  the  older  boys,  who  by  this  means  actually  measured 
off  and  made  a  wheat  field  (to  scale)  in  the  playground. 
After  watching  it  grow  they  had  a  real  harvest  (one  boy 
brought  his  tame  rabbit  and  hid  it  in  the  cornfield,  so  that, 
when  the  corn  was  cut,  a  real  rabbit  might  be  found  !)  and 


ARITHMETIC  AND   COMPOSITION  1/5 

got  a  neighboring  farmer  to  have  their  wheat  threshed 
with  his.  The  grain  which  he  sent  back  they  measured 
and  then  reckoned  by  proportion  the  amount  which  might 
have  come  from  an  ordinary-sized  wheat  field  —  prices, 
profits,  etc.  Further,  they  sent  the  bag  of  grain  to  the 
miller's  to  be  ground,  and  the  girls  baked  a  loaf  of  bread 
out  of  the  resulting  flour.  Could  boyish  enterprise  do 
more  ?  And,  remember,  the  wheat  field  was  planted  on 
what  had  previously  been  hard,  flinty  playground  —  beaten 
down  by  generations  of  little  children  with  sturdy  legs  and 
good  strong  boots  !  The  young  pioneers  removed  about 
two  tons  of  flint  and  marl,  with  which  they  repaired  the 
lane  leading  to  the  school,  and  filled  the  space  with  road 
drift  and  leaf  mold  of  their  own  collecting.  Thus  the 
wheat  field  was  quite  a  serious  game,  such  as  bigger  boys 
would  find  to  their  taste. 

Liquid  measure  was  attacked  by  means  of  a  milk  shop, 
with  (do  not  laugh  !)  chalky  w^ater  for  milk.  Sea  sand, 
when  dry,  answered  admirably  for  sugar,  and  when  wet 
might  be  cut  out  for  butter,  etc.  So  pounds,  ounces,  and 
drams  soon  presented  few  difficulties. 

This  short  account  by  no  means  disposes  of  the  arith- 
metic games,  but  it  outlines  a  few^  of  the  most  typical  ones. 
We  found  out  that  very  few  children  were  naturally  accu- 
rate when  using  weights  and  scales,  but  not  a  few  corrected 
themselves  of  carelessness  and  clumsiness  by  these  means, 
so  that  we  were  learning  something  besides  arithmetic. 

On  ''shopping"  mornings  the  pupils  would  arrive  much 
earlier  than  usual,  shortly  after  8  a.m.,  and  on  my  arrival 


176      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

I  would  find  the  "store"  set  out  finely,  looking  quite  like 
a  real  shop,  with  lines  hung  with  goods  on  display,  every 
window  ledge  spread  with  goods,  and  the  proprietor  or  pro- 
prietress—  positively  bursting  with  importance  —  ticketing 
goods  and  generally  taking  stock. 

The  older  girls  invented  a  game  to  improve  composition 
and  teach  letter  writing.  Its  plot  was  briefly  this  :  A  mer- 
chant, seated  in  his  office,  soliloquizes  on  his  need  of  an 
office  boy.  He  decides  to  advertise  in  a  local  paper,  and, 
taking  up  his  pen,  writes  an  advertisement  enumerating 
the  qualities  he  expects  to  find  in  the  boy.  He  talks  all 
the  while  he  is  writing,  so  that  the  class  "hears"  his  letter 
being  written,  and  all  jot  it  down  as  he  speaks.  (This  kept 
all  the  class  employed,  and  really  was  an  exercise  in  dicta- 
tion as  well.)  After  sealing,  addressing,  and  stamping  the 
envelope,  he  dropped  it  into  our  tiny  post  office.  Another 
boy,  who  was  postman,  collected  it  and  delivered  it  to  the 
office  of  the  newspaper.  There  the  editor  read  it  aloud, 
and,  in  dumb  show,  the  advertisement  was  printed,  the 
newspapers  were  given  out  to  several  small  newsboys  (who 
ran  about  crying,  "Paper!  Paper-r-r !  "),  and  were  duly 
bought  by  different  boys  supposed  to  be  looking  for  situ- 
ations. Three  of  these  decide  to  apply  for  the  position, 
and  we  follow  the  writing  and  composition  of  their  letters, 
as  was  done  with  the  merchant's  letter.  The  boys  were  left 
quite  to  themselves  to  compose,  and  those  who  were  wait- 
ing to  write,  went  outside  the  door,  so  as  not  to  hear  the 
letters  of  the  others.  All  these  letters  were  posted  and  de- 
livered, and  the  merchant  read  them  aloud  in  his  office. 


ARITHMETIC  AND  COMPOSITION  177 

He  selected  the  best  and  wrote  letters  appointing  an  inter- 
view. The  boys  came  and  were  questioned,  etc.  Finally, 
he  engaged  the  one  who  wrote  the  best  letter  — as  regards 
spelling,  composition,  and  writing.  The  class  used  to  help 
him  in  his  choice  from  the  letters  they  had  jotted  down. 
\\1ien  the  game  was  finished  the  teacher  would  turn  the 
blackboard,  on  the  back  of  which  she  had  also  written 
the  letters,  and,  in  a  short  talk,  would  point  out  defects  or 
mistakes.  The  object  of  making  the  class,  as  well  as  the 
actors,  write  all  the  letters  was  that  they  might  be  better 
prepared,  when  their  turn  to  be  clerks  came,  to  write  an 
intelligible  letter  without  wasting  time. 


CHAPTER  X 
NATURE    STUDY   NEWLY  APPROACHED 

EVEN  nature  study,  which  we  had  long  made  full  use 
of  in  the  form  of  direct  stud}^  of  nature,  w^as  newly 
approached  by  the  children  when  the}'  took  matters  in 
hand.  They  first  made  up  a  form  of  game  which  would 
supply  the  place  of  a  nature  ramble  on  the  mornings  when 
the  weather  was  unfavorable  for  a  real  ramble. 

One  of  the  boys  would  impersonate  the  schoolmaster. 
A  few  of  the  other  children  would  pretend  to  be  flowers 
then  in  season  and  stand  at  intervals  down  the  room, 
holding  in  their  hands  some  specimens  of  the  flower  they 
impersonated.  The  rest  of  the  class  were  the  "  class  (of 
pupils)  out  for  a  ramble."  They  formed  in  twos  and,  set- 
ting out  from  one  end  of  the  room,  arrived  at  the  first 
"  flower."  On  one  occasion  this  happened  to  be  a  sweet-^ 
pea.    The  following  dialogue  then  took  place  : 

Pupil.  Oh,  here  is  a  pretty  sweet  pea  hanging  over 
this  garden  fence  ! 

Sweet  Pea.  He  is  wrong.  I  am  not  Jianghig  over  it 
at  all !  I  climbed  up  here  on  purpose  to  look  over  at  the 
sun.  If  he  tries  to  pull  me  down  he  will  find  I  am  holding 
on  quite  firmly. 


\  i  n'"{  }i4  r- 


79 


NATURE   STUDY  NEWLY  APPROACHED      l8l 

Second  Pupil.  Good  morning,  pretty  flower  !  We  want 
to  know  more  about  you.    Can  you  tell  us  anything? 

Schoolmaster.  Look  well  and  carefully  at  the  flower 
and  it  will  tell  you  its  secrets. 

Sweet  Pea.  [/;/  a  JiigJi-pitcJied,  iveak  voice]  I  belong 
to  a  very  large  family.  There  are  over  four  thousand  seven 
hundred  of  us  ! 

Children.    [/;/  cJioriis\  Just  fancy  ! 

Sw^eet  Pea.  My  family  were  always  rather  helpless, 
for  they  never  grew  a  strong,  upright  stem  among  them. 
Years  ago  Queen  P^lora  took  pity  on  them  and  sent  her 
court  physician  to  examine  their  poor  weak  backs.  He 
invented  a  way  to  hold  their  heads  up  by  fitting  them  out 
with  some  little  ropes  to  twine  round  a  firm  support — just 
as  poor  cripples  have  crutches.  Now  they  are  able  to  hold 
themselves  up  and  climb  mucli  higher  than  most  garden 
flowers. 

Third  Pupil.  I  know  one  reason  why  you  want  to 
climb  so  high. 

Sweet  Pea.  You  may  guess,  and  I  will  tell  you  if  you 
are  right. 

Third  Pupil.  You  want  to  shoot  your  seeds  as  far 
away  as  possible  in  all  directions.  I  remember  you  twist 
your  pods  in  two  spirals,  giving  a  little  jerk  and  twist  at 
each  turn,  and  so  shoot  your  seeds  out.  If  you  are  higher 
up,  the  seeds,  of  course,  shoot  farther. 

Sweet  Pea.  Very  good  guess,  little  boy !  I  believe 
you  are  right.  But  now,  little  visitors,  look  at  my  tendrils. 
Can  you  guess  what  they  are  and  wliere  tliey  came  from  } 


l82      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING' 

Fourth  Pupil.  I  think  I  can  guess.  They  grow  where 
leaves  ought  to  be,  and  they  look  like  "  leaf  bones  "  with- 
out the  "  flesh."    Were  they  once  leaves  .? 

Sweet  Pea.  Clever  boy  !  Yes,  they  are  the  remains 
of  leaves.  But  instead  of  doing  the  work  of  leaves,  they 
now  work  at  clinging  and  holding  on  tightl)-. 

Fifth  Pupil.  But  you  have  a  veiy  funn\-  stem.  It  is 
more  like  a  leaf  than  a  stem.  " 

Sweet  Pea.  I  wonder  whether  some  little  boy  or  girl 
can  explain  that.    Think  hard,  and  then  try. 

Sixth  Pupil.  I  know.  When  the  green  "flesh"  of 
some  of  your  leaves  stopped  growing,  there  was  then  less 
leaf  work  being  done  ;  and  you  did  not  want  /(^ss  nourish- 
ment to  help  you  climb,  but  more  !  So  the  material  of 
which  those  leaves  would  have  been  made  was  used  to 
make  your  stem  wide  and  flat,  so  that  it  could  do  the  work 
of  a  leaf. 

Sweet  Pea.  Right  again !  You  see,  nature  never 
wastes  anything. 

Schoolmaster.  Do  you  ever  have  any  exciting  times 
here  in  the  garden  ? 

Sweet  Pea.  Just  at  present  there  is  the  Sweet  Pea 
and  Blue  Cornflower  race  on. 

Pupils.    Oh,  tell  us  about  that ! 

Sweet  Pea.  Well,  the  White  Sweet  Pea  and  the  Blue 
Cornflower  wanted  to  find  out  which  could  grow  the  taller. 
The  Blue  Cornflower  took  great  pains  to  strengthen  her 
stems,  for  she  knew  how  the  strong  winds  blow  even  in 
June.    The  Sweet  Pea  waited  for  the  Cornflower  to  grow, 


i8- 


NATURE   STUDY  NEWLY  APPROACHED      185 

inch  by  inch  ;  and  then,  artfully  throwing  out  a  tendril, 
she  wound  it  securely  round  the  Cornflower  and  drew 
herself  up  level  with  her  rival.  Look  !  You  can  see  for 
yourselves,  White  Sweet  Pea  has  thrown  all  kind  feeling 
to  the  winds  and  has  reared  her  head  quite  a  foot  above  the 
Cornflower,  and  has  cruelly  twined  her  tendrils  round  even 
the  Cornflower's  blossoms,  forcing  them  to  support  her. 

Schoolmaster.  I  have  known  some  children  like  that. 
They  will  let  others  work  and  learn  for  them,  and,  instead  of 
using  their  own  brains  and  powers,  they  borrow  from  others. 

The  class  would  then  pass  on  to  the  next  flower,  and 
another  dialogue  would  take  place.  These  plays  were 
always  the  children's  own.  Generally  the  dialogue  was  im- 
promptu, and  went  on  in  a  kind  of  debate,  during  which 
many  interesting  things  were  discovered.  For  instance, 
in  the  early  springtime  one  of  the  children  impersonated 
the  hazel  catkin,  and  to  illustrate  the  way  in  which  the 
catkin  is  first  stiff  and  almost  upright,  but  afterwards  limp 
and  pendent,  she  held  a  string  of  beads  pressed  up  so 
tightly  on  the  string  that  they  could  be  held  in  an  upright 
position.  Then  she  relaxed  the  string  and  showed  how 
it  immediately  hung  downward. 

In  the  short  specimen  play  which  I  have  quoted,  the 
"schoolmaster,"  in  conjunction  with  the  "flowers,"  had 
prepared  his  matter  beforehand.  But,  none  the  less,  the 
play  was  their  own. 

In  connection  with  their  nature  study,  and  as  a  variant 
of  the  "Ramble"  play,  the  girls  used  to  make  very  pretty 


l86      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

''Fairy"  plays,  introducing  stories  on  nature,  which  had 
been  compiled  from  their  nature  study  for  the  week.  Gen- 
erally these  were  written  in  verse,  each  fairy  talking  in 
couplets  composed  by  herself.  Into  these  plays  they  would 
weave  the  Morris  dance,  and  generally  they  would  borrow 
the  folk  music  for  their  couplets. 

One  such  game  was  called  "  Spring."  A  girl  repre- 
sented Queen  Flora  asleep  in  an  empty  garden.  Suddenly 
a  bright  little  girl,  dressed  to  represent  Sunshine,  sprang 
in,  touched  the  sleeping  Queen  Flora  with  her  wand,  and 
said  :  "Awake  !  I  am  the  Fairy  of  Springtime,  and  I  come 
to  bid  you  awake  !  ' 

The  queen  slowlv  got  up,  and,  seating  herself  on  a 
throne  (chair  with  curtains  draped  over  it),  said  :  "  Call 
Fairy  Aconite."  Crinkled  paper  had  been  freely  used  in 
getting  up  costumes  for  the  little  crowd  of  "spring  flowers  " 
—  correctly  called  by  the  queen  in  the  order  in  which  the 
spring  flowers  are  expected  to  arrive.  Each  "fairy"  had 
prepared  a  verse  descriptive  'of  her  own  personality  and 
peculiarities,  which  she  either  said  or  warbled.  When  all 
were  assembled,  a  dialogue  ensued,  summing  up  all  they 
knew  of  spring  and  spring  flowers  ;  any  verses  of  good 
poetry  from  standard  authors  bearing  on  the  subject  were 
repeated,  something  original  in  the  wa\-  of  dances  or 
tableaux  was  arranged,  and  the  "fairies"  tripped  off. 


CHAPTER  XI 
MANUAL  WORK 

MUCH  stress  is  now  being  laid  on  manual  occupa- 
tions in  school,  and,  as  I  have  previously  remarked 
in  this  book,  I  nearly  always  found  that  the  children's 
games  connected  themselves  naturally  with  some  form  of 
handwork.  I  deemed  this  sufficient  for  children  of  the 
elementary-school  age  ^  that  they  should  be  able  to  use 
their  fingers  and  hands  without  awkwardness  in  making 
for  themselves  such  things  as  could  not  be  more  economi- 
cally bought.  This  also  had  the  double  advantage  of  tend- 
ing neither  to  spoil  any  one  trade  nor  to  neglect  unduly 
any  other.  I  have  described  how  the  children  built  their 
own  shed  when  they  played  being  "Tig,"  and  how  they 
excavated  flint  and  marl  from  their  playground  to  form  a 
garden.  In  this  way  they  formed  a  large  vegetable  garden 
in  which  the)'  grew  wonderful  marrows,  beans,  peas,  pota- 
toes, cabbages,  etc.  They  also  planted  cuttings  of  fruit  trees, 
begged  from  their  fathers,  and  in  time  had  a  very  good 
fruit  garden,  with  gooseberries,  raspberries,  black  currants, 
strawberries,  a  peach  tree,  and  a  young  apple  tree.  When 
they  needed  a  glass  seed  frame,  they  made  a  crude  one 
out  of  a  packing  case.  Later,  to  encourage  them,  we  bought 
one  out  of  the  school  funds.    Our  object  was  not  exactly 

187 


l88      THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

to  teach  children  hving  in  an  enUghtened  country  Hke 
England  that  they  must  make,  by  tedious  amateur  proc- 
esses, everything  they  needed.  To  that,  on  principle,  I 
objected.  I  merely  wanted  to  see  how  they  set  about  to 
make  something  which  would  answer  their  purpose  sup- 
posing they  had  not  the  wherewithal  to  buy  the  correct 
article.  In  the  same  w^ay  they  made  a  little  wooden  fence 
for  their  vegetable  garden  (subsequent  to  a  nocturnal  visit 
from  a  cow,  who  ate  up  all  their  young  cabbages  and 
trampled  everything  else  !)  out  of  some  old  desks.  To  do 
them  justice,  the  posts  of  that  fence  were  "w^ell  and  truly" 
driven  home,  for  they  stand  there  to  this  day. 

Besides  all  this,  the  boys  gradually  made  little  semi- 
circular plots  for  separate  flower  gardens  all  round  the 
playground,  and  in  time  converted  a  strip  of  ground  under 
a  south  wall  into  a  very  fine  herbaceous  border,  wath  an 
extremely  good  collection  of  flow^ers  for  every  season, 
including  some  especially  fine  hollyhocks  of  every  color 
and  description.  Thus  the  children's  nature  study  called 
forth  the  accompanying  manual  work  of  simple  carpentry 
and  gardening,  although  these  subjects  ivere  not  tajigJU. 

The  girls  had  their  own  form  of  handwork.  Naturally 
this  consisted  chiefly  of  some  branch  of  needlew^ork,  cro- 
chet, or  knitting.  Occasionally  it  took  the  form  of  cook- 
ery. At  Christmas  time  they  made  ''Christmas  puddings," 
which  were  boiled  and  partaken  of  by  the  whole  school  on 
the  day  of  breaking  up  for  the  Christmas  holidays. 

At  another  time  pancakes  were  made  in  school,  and, 
after  being  fried  (each  girl  taking  part  by  being  allowed 


MANUAL  WORK  1 89 

to  beat  the  batter  and  fry  one  cake),  they  were  eaten  with 
great  gusto.  Other  informal  cookery  included  cake  mak- 
ing, everything  except  the  actual  baking  being  done  in 
school  (the  baking  had  to  take  place  in  the  kitchen  of  the 
teacher's  dwelling  house),  bread  making,  simple  puddings, 
a  molasses  tart,  and  other  delightful  things.  All  these 
"dainties"  were  needed  for  games  and  were  made  as  part 
of  the  play.  On  one  occasion  the  girls  wanted  something 
more  elaborate  to  answer  the  purpose  of  a  wedding  cake. 
I  therefore  showed  them  how  to  ice  a  cake,  letting  them 
assist  me.  One  of  the  girls  who  assisted  profited  by  the 
lesson,  for  she  went  home  and  practiced  it  again.  Less 
than  a  year  afterwards  she  gained  a  prize  for  an  iced  cake 
in  a  competition  open  to  the  count}\  A  few  years  later 
she  made  and  iced  her  own  wedding  cake.  I  tasted  it  and 
can  testify  that  it  left  nothing  to  be  desired  —  but  another 
helping. 

In  their  needlework  the  girls  did  a  good  deal  of  doll 
dressing,  and  the  garments  thus  made  were  always  cut  out 
correctly  to  scale,  being  quite  practical  affairs  in  miniature. 
I  never  limited  them  as  regards  the  "  fancy  "  stitches,  if 
they  liked  to  use  them.  The  trimmings  were  knitted  by 
the  children  themselves,  which  led  them  to  appreciate 
daintiness  and  neatness,  and  promoted  a  desire  to  make 
garments  and  lace  for  themselves  as  well  as  for  the  dolls. 
I  am  now  convinced  that  children  learn  to  dislike  needle- 
work only  when  it  is  presented  t(j  them  in  the  form  of 
large,  unwieldy  garments  of  ugly  appearance,  with  long, 
tiring,  monotonous  seams.    With  miniature  garments  they 


190      THE   DRAMATIC   METHOD   ()E  TEACHINC; 

get  variety,  and  more  quickly  see  a  finished  result  of  their 
labors.  We  permitted  the  use  of  the  sewing  machine  for 
certain  work  in  school  —  notably  the  long,  tedious  seams. 
The  girls  frequently  dressed  a  doll,  making  for  it  a  com- 
plete outfit  suitable  for  a  young  working  girl,  even  to  out- 
door garments  and  fashionable  hats,  and  doing  all  the 
work,  except  the  buttonholes,  on  the  sewing  machine.  If 
I  allowed  them  a  free  hand,  it  was  delightful  to  find  how- 
many  dainty  little  knickknacks  they  would  make  —  tiny 
pocket  handkerchiefs  beautifully  hemstitched,  with  the 
dolls'  initials  worked  in  the  corner. 

Sometimes  we  would  play  at  dressmakers'  shops,  and 
little  girls  would  come  to  be  measured.  Patterns  of  gar- 
ments to  measure  would  then  be  drafted  and  fitted,  amid 
the  criticism  and  advice  of  the  onlookers.  This  gave  rise 
to  investigations  into  prices  and  quantities  of  material ; 
and,  naturally,  the  questioning  came,  not  from  the  teacher, 
but  from  the  children  who  were  playing  "  dressmakers." 

Of  course  we  had  included  in  our  library  some  good 
books  on  pattern  making  and  cutting,  so  that  the  girls 
soon  found  out  how  to  get  a  good  pattern  and  preserved 
all  their  successful  ones  for  future  use. 


CHAPTER   XII 
AFTER   SCHOOL  AGE 

THUS  far  I  have  dealt  with  the  dramatic  method  as 
used  in  the  elementary  school  for  pupils  under  four- 
teen years  of  age.  In  this  short  chapter  I  should  very  much 
like  to  outline  briefly  the  way  in  which  the  work,  begun 
in  the  schoolroom,  entered  the  home  and  after-school  life. 

Just  as  the  nature-study  movement  filtered  through  the 
children's  conversations  at  home  until  the  parents  imbibed 
it  and  went  for  nature  rambles  on  Sunday  afternoons  with 
their  children,  so  the  dramatic  method  soon  took  hold  on 
the  home  life. 

It  was  not  many  years  before  older  pupils,  remembering 
the  interesting  plays  in  which  they  had  joined  at  school, 
and  wishing  to  do  more  than  help  their  younger  brothers 
and  sisters  to  make  properties,  came  and  asked  me  to 
assist  them  during  their  winter  evenings  to  act  some  suit- 
able plays.  The  result  of  this  was  that  we  organized  a 
sort  of  dramatic  club  for  men,  and  after  one  or  two  false 
starts  in  the  choice  of  plays,  we  hit  upon  a  Shakespearean 
play  suitable  to  be  played  by  men.  We  first  essayed  to 
act  one  scene  from  Shakespeare's  "Julius  Caesar" — -the 

murder  scene.    Our  cast  consisted  entirely  of  workingmen 

191 


192     THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

of  the  village  —  some  were  fathers  of  pupils,  others,  them- 
selves old  pupils.  It  was  quite  an  inspiration  to  observe 
how  really  interested  they  all  were  in  learning  their  parts, 
in  discussing  them,  in  studying  them  so  as  to  bring  out 
all  that  Shakespeare  intended.  They  would  frequently 
have  long  discussions  over  the  meanings  of  words  and 
allusions  in  the  play,  and  went  so  far  as  to  buy  histories 
of  Rome  to  clear  up  doubtful  points  and  to  get  their 
costumes  and  properties  correct  in  detail. 

When  one  scene  was  mastered,  however,  the  men  were 
enthusiastic  and  demanded  more.  So  we  added  another 
scene,  and  so  on,  until  the  complete  play,  minus  the  scene 
introducing  Portia  and  Calpurnia,  was  well  known.  Then 
we  engaged  a  hall  and  gave  the  play  to  an  enthusiastic, 
overflowing  audience.  But  the  actual  performance  of  the 
play  is  not  the  point  I  wish  to  emphasize  ;  it  is  the  fact 
that  the  men  were  educated  enough  to  find  ample  amuse- 
ment in  one  of  Shakespeare's  least  droll  plays.  So  much 
were  they  really  interested  that  on  one  wet  Saturday  they 
spent  eight  consecutive  hours  (with  a  short  interval  for 
tea)  in  rehearsing  in  their  Roman  costumes.  At  the  out- 
set we  had  intended  to  meet  one  evening  in  the  week. 
Toward  the  end  the  men  would  hardly  be  content  without 
five  meetings  a  week. 

Their  properties,  although  mostly  of  their  own  making, 
were  quite  correct ;  and  the  scene  in  which  Brutus  and 
Cassius  quarrel,  and  where  Caesar's  ghost  appears,  was  so 
artistically  gotten  up,  and  so  well  acted,  that  it  called  forth 


-a 


-  i 


;4  -5 


-2  '3 
2    f^ 


193 


AFTER   SCHOOL  AGE  195 

the  admiration  of  old  and  hardened  newspaper  critics  on 
big  London  daihes. 

The  matter  did  not  end  there,  for  the  motJicrs  of  the 
village  not  only  acted  plays  but  invented  them.  They, 
too,  met  at  the  school  —  which  thus  becam.e  a  real  center 
of  light  and  learning  —  and  there  practiced  plays  written 
by  one  of  their  number.  The  first  of  these  was  entided 
"A  Cup  of  Tea,"  and  contained  some  good  local  hits. 
Another  play  was  patriotic  and  written  in  verse  I  The 
mothers  also  practiced  the  Morris  dance  and  dramatized 
folk  songs  just  as  the  scholars  in  the  day  school  were  doing. 
In  the  latter  art  they  excelled,  for  they  had  a  good  store 
of  the  Sussex  folk  songs. 

Comical  in  the  extreme  was  their  "  band  "  of  various 
instruments,  which  they  managed  to  play  tunefully.  Really 
it  seemed  as  if  we  had  reached  the  ideal  state  of  village 
life,  and  had  made  one  or  two  steps  toward  reintroducing 
"  Merrie  England."  Whether  this  was  a  result  of  the 
school  method  I  leave  others  to  judge,  but  let  no  one  be 
afraid  that  the  result  of  such  teaching  will  be  to  set  the 
whole  community  ''acting  mad."  I  have  heard  of  none 
of  the  everyday  work  of  the  village  being  neglected,  but 
I  did  observe  that  there  were  a  few  more  cheerful  faces 
to  be  seen  among  those  who  took  part  in  the  work. 

Certain  it  is  that  one  result  of  this  kind  of  education 
will  be  to  foster  the  good  taste  of  our  people,  developing 
the  capacities  of  our  children  and  enabling  them  to  find 
their  propensity  in  choosing  their  life's  career. 


196      THE  DRAMATIC  METHOD  OF  TEACHING 

It  seems  to  me  that  children  trained  on  the  Hnes  indi- 
cated very  inadequately  in  this  book  will  be  well  fitted  to 
take  their  part  in  the  world.  They  will  at  least  have  had 
a  fuller  childhood  than  some  of  their  predecessors,  and, 
having  acted  well  their  parts  in  school,  we  will  send  them 
forth  confidently,  remembering  that  '".all  the  world  's  a 
stage." 


INDEX 


Adapted  plays, 25,27,44-55, 91-100 
Africa,  geography  plays  on,  130, 16S 
Alcott,    L.  M.,   "Little    Women," 

126 
Arithmetic,     169-177;    combined 

with     nature     study,     1 69-1 71  ; 

taught  with  ''dough,"  171-172; 

playing  store,  172-174;  the  post 

office,  1 74  ;  land  measuring,  1 74 ; 

pounds,  ounces,  drams,  174 
"As  You  Like  It,"  102,  106 
Austr-alia,    geography    plays    on, 

157-162 

Battle  scenes,  36,  37,  81 
"Bevis"  (Jefferies),  35,  126-130 
Business  qualities,  developing,  72 

Canada,  geography  plays  on,  i  53 
"  Charles  I,"  61-68 
Children  as  teachers,  26-27 
Chorus,  the,  34,  44,  75,  78,  81,82, 

91,  100,  119,  129,  178 
"Christmas     Carol"     (Dickens), 

120-124 
Clay  modeling,  131 
Clerical  work,  27 
"  Coal  and  Iron  Towns,"  game  of, 

139 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  147 

Conversation,  encouraging  natu- 
ral, 8 

Cookery,  teaching,  132,  188-189 

Costumes,  38,  39,  40,  56-58,  81, 
102-103,  107,  116 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  147 
Dickens,  Charles.  See  "  Christmas 
Carol"  and  ''Pickwick  Papers" 
Discipline,    free    system    of,    31, 


Drawing,  developed  through  the 
play,  88 

Elizabeth,   play   on  the   reign  of, 

44-55 

English  language,  taught  through 
plays,  25,  74,  103-106 

English  literature,  taught  through 
plays,  1 18-132;  Wordsworth's 
"Daffodils,"  119;  Dickens's 
"  Christmas  Carol  "  and  "  Pick- 
wick Papers,"  120-124,  125- 
126;  Alcott's  "Little  Women," 
126;  Jefferies's"  Wood  Magic" 
and  "Bevis,"  126-130;  "Days 
before  History,"  130-132.  See 
also  under  Scott,  Shakespeare, 
Tennyson,  Wordsworth 

France,  geography  plays  on,  153 

Gardens,  school,  174-175,  187-188 
Geography,  taught  through  plays, 

130,  133-168 
Geography  games,  133-168 
Gesture,  natural,  75,  loi 
Girls'  plays,  27,  109-117,  119,  126 

Handicraft,  developed  through 
plays,  88 

"  Henry  V,"  77-84,  91 

"  Henry  VI,"  91 

Historical  plays,  why  evolved,  4  ; 
based  on  historical  novel,  10; 
first,  18-19;  teaching  history 
through,  18-43;  "Ivanhoe,"  19- 
20,  42;  played  outdoors,  42; 
"Wolfe  on  the  Heights  of  Abra- 
ham," 42  ;  "  Queen  Elizabeth 
and  Raleigh,"  44-55  ;  "  Charles 
I,"  61-68 


197 


THE  DRAMATIC   METHOD  OF  TEACHING 


History,  taught  through  plays,  25, 

41,  68,  130-132,  192 
Humanities,    teaching     the,     14- 

Indian  scenes,  153-154 

"  Ivanhoe,"  18,  19,  20,  21,  22,  27, 


Jefferies,  Richard.    See  "  Bevis  " 
"JuHus  Caesar,"  86,  191-192 

"  Jvenilworth,"  44,  52 
"  King  John,"  87 

Letter  writing,  174,  176-177 
Library.    See  School  library 
"Little  Women"  (Alcott),  126 
Livingstone,  David,  168 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  147 

Manual  work,  187-190 

"  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,"  a  play, 

109-116 
Memorizing,  developed  by  school 

plays,  20,  loi,  1 18,  157 
Mendelssohn,     "  Spring      Song," 

119 
"  Merchant  of  Venice,"  101-102. 
Method  vs.  the  child,  3 
"  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  A," 

85,  102,  108 
Monotony  in  present  methods  of 

teaching,  68-71 

Nature  study,  an  aid  to  dramatic 
teaching,  4  ;  furnishes  material 
for  singing,  drawing,  etc.,  4  ;  an 
aid  to  self-expression,  8;  and  his- 
tory plays,  41-42  ;  and  arithme- 
tic, 169-171;  newly  approached, 
178-186;  flower  dialogues,  17S- 
185;  and  manual  work,  188;  for 
parents,  191 

New  Zealand,  in  the  geography 
play,  163-167 

Original  investigations,  84 
Original  plays,  56-76,  178-186 
Originality,  encouraging,  7-8 


Perseverance,  developed  by  plays, 

72 
"Pickwick     Papers"      (Dickens), 

125 

Plays,  school,  theories  concerning, 
10,  13,  15;  "Ivanhoe,"  19,  42; 
"  Wolfe  on  the  Heights  of  Abra- 
ham," 42;  "Queen  Elizabeth  and 
Raleigh,"  44-55  >  "  Charles  I," 
61-68;  "Henry  V,"  77-84; 
"  King  John,"  87  ;  "  Wat  Tyler's 
Rebellion,"  92-100  ;  "  Merchant 
of  Venice,"  101-102  ;  "A  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream,"  102- 
104;  "As  You  Like  It,"  106- 
108;  "Mary  Queen  of  Scots," 
109-116;  "Christmas  Carol," 
120-124;  "Pickwick  Papers," 
125;  "Little  Women,"  126; 
"  Cumberland,"  1 43-1 51;"  Switz- 
erland,"! 51-152;  "France,"  153: 
"Canada,"  153;  "Australia," 
157-162  ;  "  New  Zealand,"  163- 
164;  "Africa,"  168;  arithmetic, 
170-171;  nature  study,  178-185; 
for  grown-ups,  191 -196 

Post  office,  play,  174 

Properties,  stage,  34-41,  81-82, 
102,  1 16,  152,  172-T74 

Resourcefulness,  how  developed, 

21,  72-73,  102 
Ruskin,  John,  145,  146 

School  library,  10,  28,  31,  190 
Scott,  Sir  Walter.    See  "  Ivanhoe  " 

and  "  Kenilworth  " 
Sense  of  humor,  development  of, 

16-17 
Sewing,  38,  39,  134,  189-190 
Shakespeare,  plays  of,  .77-108; 
"  discovered  "  by  the  children, 
jj  ;  "  Henry  V,"  77-84  ;  outside 
study  of,  84-86 ;  girls  and,  87 ; 
"Julius  Caesar,"  86,  191-192^ 
"  King  John, "87  ;  original  treat- 
ment of,  88;  "Henry  VI,"  91; 
modeling  on,  91-100;  "Mer- 
chant of  Venice,"  101-102  ;  "A 
Midsummer    Night's     Dream " 


INDEX 


199 


and  "As  You  Like  It,"- 102  ;  as 
English  lessons,  103-106;  cos- 
tumes for,  107 

Singing,  dramatic,  42-43,  75 

Southey,  Robert,  147 

Spelling,  learned  through  the  play, 
28 

Spontaneity,  82 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  quotation  from, 
16 

Style,  in  writing,  28 

Switzerland,  geography  play  on, 
151-152 


Tasmania,  in  the  play,  167 
Teacher,  relation  of,  to  pupils,  9 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  119 
Textbooks,proper  use  of,32, 83, 137 

"  Wat    Tyler's    Rebellion,"    an 

adapted  play,  91-100 
Wheatfield,  school,  174-175 
"  Wolfe  on  the  Heights  of  Abra- 
ham," an  historical  play,  42 
Wordsworth,  William,  1 19, 146, 148 
Workingmen,    and    Shakespeare, 
85-86,  191-195 


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